Gretchen Faber's (gfaber) Blog

A friend of mine is a lender in a mountain town in Colorado.  We’ve been talking about home sales and where the market might be headed.  Here is an excerpt of an email he sent me yesterday: “From what I’m hearing around the country (from lenders,) everyone has seen the buyer market completely dry...

An agent in my office is attending the Denver County and Arapahoe County foreclosure auctions regularly.  He has an investor client looking for properties at foreclosure sale.  We had an interesting discussion last week. Many buyers think that they need to buy a foreclosure to "get the best deal....

Lenders are requiring higher and higher credit scores these days.  These days, if your score is less than 720, you may be at risk for not qualifying or not getting the best rates. When I started selling real estate nearly 15 years ago, a score in the high 600's or low 700's was adequate and last ...

Having grown up in Southern California,  I was more a beach bum than a horsey person when I relocated to Denver nearly 28 years ago. In fact, one thing I completely rejected about my new hometown was anything to do with western wear, western culture or cows. My boots were ski boots, and my jeans ...

By now, many of you have heard the story of DUKE, who we adpoted one year ago. Duke is a Golden Retreiver/Shar Pei mix who has the disposition of Budda and loves tummy rubs and peanut butter. He was abandoned in Texas, and we got him last year during the weekend of Hurricane Ike. We've entered Du...

A broker in my office came to me yesterday with some questions about a seller’s recourse if the loan doesn’t fund at closing. Colorado is a “table closing” state, and our contract expressly states that the buyer must attend the closing with all moneys and documents.  This means that if a closing ...

Denver real estate is in recovery. We’re the baby sapling, taking root and growing strong. The thing is, we never totally crashed and burned like other cities did. Prices went down for sure and according to yesterday’s S & P - Case Shiller Report, we’ve seen depreciation of 4.9% since this time ...

Denver’s new Zoning Code is currently in the community feedback phase. The new code has been in the works for several years, and Denver’s Zoning Code Task Force and the Community Planning and Development group are currently seeking public input.  There have been several community meetings to rev...

Yay! The market statistics are out for the month of April. This is always my favorite blog post of every month, and I wait with baited breath for the Metrolist stats to be put up on their site. These statistics are based on homes listed for sale in the Denver MLS, and do not reflect private sale...

Downtown Denver has seen several developments taking shape.  Once particularly interesting building is Spire. Developer Randy Nichols is building a mid-priced condo development aimed at the average price range for a downtown buyer.  The development is rapidly rising across from the Denver Conven...