With summer just around the corner, it’s time to start thinking about all the sights and activities that Denver has to offer. There’s no better time to start planning than right now! We at 8z, have decided to help you out with the decision process. Here are five fun things to do in Denver on the weekend:

1) Denver Botanic Gardens: Denver has one of the top rated Botanic Gardens in the nation. It’s located just ten miles east of downtown and one mile north of the Cherry Creek Shopping Center, and displays a wide variety of plants and trees from all over the world. They hold a variety of exhibits, concerts, art displays, and plant sales throughout the year. Admission is decently priced, and it provides hours of entertainment as you walk around the 23 acre landscape. Recently Denver volunteers assisted world renowned Japanese artist, Tetsunori Kawana assemble a dramatic new installation at the Denver Botanic Gardens.

2) Denver Art Museum: Located in the City Civic Center, this museum is easy to access and full of interesting exhibits. It’s currently hosting an exclusive U.S. exhibition called “Yves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective.” This exhibit shows designer Yves Saint Laurent’s work over the past 40 years. It will be here through July 8, 2012, and is a must see for all fashionistas. Another traveling exhibit is “Read My Pins: The Madeleine Albright Collection” featuring pins worn by Madeline Albright, viewed at the museum from 15 April – 17 June. Every few weeks this museum has a new highly respected exhibit that draws in thousands of viewers, and that’s not even counting the number of people who go to see the museum itself!

3) Washington Park: If you’re more keen on being outdoors on the weekends, consider checking out this spacious park. It covers 165 acres, and is always buzzing with activity. Fitness enthusiasts can often be found here, as it has numerous running trails, tennis courts, a lawn bowling/croquet field, and a recreation center that has an indoor pool and free weights. If you’re not an exercise buff, have no fear. This park also has beautiful flower gardens, two lakes (one of which is boat friendly), and two different playgrounds for the kids. The Wash Park neighborhood surrounding the area are some of Denver’s oldest neighborhoods and are filled with cute little houses.

4) Cherry Creek Bike Path: Grab a bike and head off down this 15 mile scenic bike trail that follows Cherry Creek through Denver. This is one of the most popular bike/hike/jogging trails in Denver, and is used by many of the locals. It starts at Confluence Park, passes by the Cherry Creek Shopping Center, and ends at the Cherry Creek Reservoir, making it very accessible from many Denver neighborhoods. The trail is below street level allowing some of the traffic noise to be blocked, but it still follows along Speer Boulevard. If you don’t have a bike, have no fear! You can easily rent one from one of Denver’s many B-Cycle stations.

5) Coors Field: This MLB field opened in 1995, and is home to the Denver Rockies. If you’re a baseball fan, you’ll be happy to know that there isn’t a bad seat in the house and the wide selection of food and drinks are a favorite amenity among guests. It also has one of the largest outfields in baseball today. Because of the high elevation, many balls end up traveling farther than in other parks, so it was decided to place the outfield fences unusually far from the home plate. If you happen to visit on a non-game day or in the off season, you can still get a tour of the stadium for an incredibly reasonable price. It’s easy to make a day when visiting the ball park. Take public transportation to Coors Field then enjoy the food and drink in the LoDo and Ballpark neighborhoods.

With gas prices already on the rise, and with the likely chance they’ll only continue to climb over the summer, it might be time to consider alternate transportation methods in the Denver Metro area. Whether you’re trying to get to work, the airport, or to a Rockies game, there is an option for you. Denver has one of the best public transportations systems in the nation, it’s time we utilize it!

According to the RTD website, there are 140 Local, Express, and Regional bus routes serving 10,000 bus stops, five light rail lines providing 35 miles of light rail service and over 70 Park-n-Rides. This means there are very few areas that don’t have access to some form of public transportation!

If you work in the downtown area, you know how expensive it can be to park day after day. Add that to the gas you’re using to get to and from, and the wear and tear done to your car, and you’ll find the bill racking up quite a bit. Why not try a bus? You can pick one up at any transfer center, Park-n-Ride, or bus stop, and parking is almost always free. There are numerous stops throughout Denver, and the Market Street Station is central for many businesses. They make trip planning easy with their handy Trip Planner that you can find on their website. It allows you to enter your starting destination and ending destination, and informs you which route is the best to take.

Worried about the cost? You can buy a monthly or yearly pass that will be the most cost effective, or you can pay per ride. The most expensive would be for a regional ticket at $5.00 for a one-way ticket. It goes down from there with $4.00 for an express trip, and $2.50 for a local ride. RTD also offers discounts to seniors and veterans. Whichever route you happen to be on, it will most likely be less expensive than driving your own vehicle.

If you’re headed to the airport, consider hopping on an RTD SkyRide bus. These buses operate 7 days a week, 365 days a year. They can be picked up at select Park-n-Rides, and run at least once an hour. Some even run every 15 minutes depending on the location and the time of day. The bus driver will help you with your luggage, and will drop you off right outside the ticket counters at the airport. These rides tend to be more expensive ranging from $9.00 to $13.00, and you might have to pay for parking depending on the transfer center. However, it will still save you gas money and parking fees at the airport.

How about a day of fun enjoying an all-American game of baseball? If you’re heading to a Rockies game and prefer to avoid the hassle of stop-and-go traffic along with the sky high parking prices, you might want to try RockiesRide! This direct bus service can be found on the weekends at many Park-n-Ride locations. It runs for all of the Rockies weekend home games and fireworks games. They leave up to two hours before the game, and arrive near the stadium within 30 to 60 minutes of the first pitch. These buses are all clearly marked with the route number followed by the letter “R” on the destination sign.

If you prefer to be slightly more modern in your transportation, you might be more interested in taking the light rail into the city. There are five light rail lines and over 35 stops that they cover. However, you might be slightly limited in where you can pick them up as it doesn’t cover as much ground as the bus lines do. If you happen to live within Denver’s city limits, or south of Denver in the Littleton area, you’re in luck. The light rail is fast and easy. It has twice as many pick up times as most bus routes, and is very user friendly. If you’ve never ridden the light rail before, you can find a 7 step tutorial on the RTD website.

If you live west of Denver towards Golden, have no fear, the light rail is moving in that direction. Crews are currently working on the rail system, and are projecting the completion date will be in the spring of 2013. The station will be located at the Jefferson County Government Center and will run all the way to Downtown Denver.

There’s snow on the ground, but it isn’t too early to start thinking about summer home improvements, most especially your cooling and air conditioning system.

Colorado is known for changes in weather. There’s certainly many more freezes left before winter and spring pass. It’s expected that between now and summer daytime temperatures will vary from below freezing to clear and sunny days in the mid 60s.

As the weather changes, so does the temperature of your home. Now is the time to shop for cooling systems, in order to maintain a comfortable temperature as we approach the summer months.

Did you know, according to Xcel, ‘Cooling is the #2 user of electricity for most commercial buildings. New cooling equipment is at least 20% more efficient than units just 15 years old, and the most-efficient new units are up to 52% more efficient than the minimum-efficiency models. (Source: E Source by Platts).’

If you are a customer of Xcel energy, have you heard of The High Efficiency Cooling Rebate program?

The rebate is available for qualifying high-efficiency cooling units including different chillers, condensing units, hybrid evaporative cooling, rooftop units and more. These are listed on the Cooling Rebate page on Xcel’s website. These cash rebates are on average approximately 50% of the cost between purchasing the high-efficiency cooler rather than the standard efficiency cooler.

In addition, those who take advantage of the High Efficiency Cooling Rebate will benefit from the savings to be had with a high efficiency system, as they keep their homes cool all summer, this year, and future years.

If you’re looking forward to hot summer days, and want to take advantage of the rebate, Xcel instructs customers to call the Business Solutions Center at 1-800-481-4700 or e-mail energyefficiency@xcelenergy.com.

The final portion of E-470 and the Northwest Parkway has hit another road block. The segment of highway that will be named Jefferson Parkway, has been under discussion for over a year. Jefferson Parkway would be the roughly-11 mile length of road that would close the E 470/ Northwest Parkway circle that runs around the Denver-Metro area.

The latest detail to this long planning process was the announcement this last week that Superior residents have filed a lawsuit against the Fish and Wildlife Service. The suit is based on the premises that the Fish and Wildlife Service did not provide a complete environmental impact report of how the segment of highway will impact the area and adjacent wildlife refuge. As 8z’s David Pennington reported in an article titled, ‘Another potential roadblock for Jefferson Parkway planners,’ “The lawsuit is directed at violations of the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge Act as well as many parameters in the National Environmental Policy.”

Many environmental impact studies take years, requiring public funding to study, observe and analyze the current environmental conditions of the area to suggest several ways new construction could impact the area. Locals can already point to the impact the road would have on rare prairie tall grasses which grow in the area, as well as the habitat for he already-threatened Preble meadow jumping mouse – not to mention the four lane highway would block animal migration to the west.

Currently, the proposed toll road would be built along the eastern edge of the wildlife refuge. Funds from the sale of the easement would have gone towards expanding the refuge in another direction.

Now the environmental impact will be weighted against other pros and cons for the new highway. Superior residents were concerned about the increase of traffic the parkway would bring to McCaslin Boulevard. Yet there are advantages to the highway; the road would likely bring more business to the town of Superior.

So now the economic impact is being contrasted against the environmental impact. Keep an eye on RockCreekPulse.com and share your opinions about the plans for Jefferson Parkway. 8z’s Superior Colorado and Rock Creek team is invested in keeping you up to date as this story develops.

Have you heard?  Denver has allowed residents to own chickens, ducks, and dwarf goats within city limits since June 2011.

For those who enjoy their eggs fresh from the chicken coup rather than fresh from the grocery store, this has been great news.

So if you have your Denver home, but want to explore what it’s like to be an urban farmer, here are a few resources and tips we’ve gathered, that I’m sure you’ll enjoy.

First as the denverchickencooptour.com website details, ‘As of June 2011, Denver now allows each lot to have up to 8 chickens and ducks (total of and 2 dwarf goats.  These must be females, although young male kids are allowed as well as neutered male goats.’

Then you must consider how you will ‘coop’ the chickens and ducks to be safe from wild animals as well as warm in the winter time.  Many choose to make a chicken coop, and others choose to match the architecture with their homes.  Check out this photo of one taken by David at NotQuiteHippie.com:

A chicken coop taken during a coop tour by NotQuiteHippie.com

The web is also a great resource for finding the success stories of those who have been urban farming for years with chicken coops in their own backyard for years longer than Denverites have been.  A Facebook page for UrbanChickens.net has many community members talking about what works from their own personal experience.

Do you have experience with a backyard chicken coop?  And if so we would love to hear your recommendations on how to get started!  Everyone in Denver is waiting to hear!

It’s less than a week from Halloween and also the first day of snow in the front range.  For those who have lived in Colorado a long time, you know the first snow and Halloween seem to follow eachother hand in hand.  Every Colorado trick-or-treater knows it’s not a costume if you can’t fit a snow jacket underneath!

The forecasts for Denver, Boulder and Fort Collins has Halloween day 2011 the 10 day high.  We’ll see if the Colorado forecast is correct!

In the meantime however, it seems that there are more activities for young and old, across Colorado, in the days leading up to Halloween itself.

Many of the neighbors in the Colorado neighborhoods 8z Real Estate blogs about have listed activities, costume and decoration ideas recently.  Here are a few things happening near you!

Activities

In Boulder:

In recent years the Boulder High Haunted House has now become legendary. Travel through the tunnels beneath the school and through the auditorium to benefit the Boulder HS theater production team. So avoid those long lines at the commercial haunted houses, and visit the local haunted house. It opens October 27th through Halloween. Click for more details about Boulder High’s Haunted House.

On Friday Oct 28, 3-5pm there’s an event at the SoBo Rec Center for the young kids, ages 3-8 years old. It’s the Spooktacular Celebration complete with pirate bounce house, crafts, face painting, Halloween tattoos, haunted house/maze, games and prizes.

Not every Halloween activity is about eating obscene amounts of candy. On Saturday, Oct 29th, 8:45am bring a pumpkin and a canned food item to donate and participate in the 3rd annual Halloween Food Drive and PUMP-kin workout at Scott Carpenter Park.

From there you have time to attend the Free Family Halloween Concert at the Boulder Public Library’s Canyon Theater. It is at 11am Oct 29th.

There are also two non-scary Halloween themed play classes during the weekend on Oct 29, 4-5:30pm and Oct 30, 10-11:30am at  Gymboree Play and Music. For $20/child (adults are free) your kid and you can enjoy craft time, a costume parade, parachute time with bubbles and a snack.

And on Halloween day itself, from 3-5pm take the kids after school to Downtown Boulder’s Munchkin Masquerade. Trick-r-treat on the Pearl St Mall!

And before heading out in the neighborhood for trick-r-treating, visit Ideal Market’s Annual Pumpkin Patch Photo Booth.  It is also a free event with photos taken by a professional photographer.

In Denver:

On Saturday October 29th, head to Northwest Denver as the shops all along Tennyson Street between 38th and 45th Avenues in the Berkeley neighborhood will be giving out goodies to children. It’s the Trick Or Treat on Tennyson Street!

In Northern Colorado:

Near Greeley, there is The Fritzler Maize which is Colorado’s original and premier corn maze. There are pillow jumps, camp fires, duck races, loads of other fun entertainment – and food – kettle corn, pizza, funnel cakes, cotton candy, BBQ and more. Read about the maize.

In Loveland, participate in The Embassy Suites Loveland’s 2nd Annual Phantom 4-Mile Race, Bone Chilling Breakfast and Costume Contest will be held Saturday, October 29, 2011. There will be prizes for the best adult costume, best team costume, best child’s costume and best dog costume! Read about the course and the animal sanctuary it benefits.

And for plenty more, happening in your neighborhood, check out your neighborhood blogs on 8z.com.

As we wind out of summer and into fall, it’s a time to reflect on our gardens and landscaping.

But if you made it through another summer and never got around to building that raised garden bed, or transition your landscaping to require less water, here are a few ideas…

Community Garden. Condo/townhome and small home living is great as it usually requires less maintenance, but sometimes there’s just not enough space for the vegetable garden of your dreams.  If that is the case, consider a community garden. Recently, CU researchers published that community gardens have a positive influence on both the individual gardener and the neighborhood.  The study finds that they “eat more vegetables, exercise more, weigh less and feel healthier than nongardeners—and even home gardeners—in the Denver-metro area.”

Landscaping.  For those who live in Boulder county, check out the Center for Resource Conservation’s Garden-In-A-Box.  These carefully designed xeriscape gardens are low-water landscapes, which utilize water-wise plants specifically cultivated to bloom in Boulder’s arid climate.

Container Gardening. If you have at least a porch but are otherwise limited with space, consider a container garden and plant your favorite herbs, flowers and small veggie plants.  It’s also great for keeping a garden as we get into the winter months.

Home Gardening. And, if you have the space, there is little more satisfying than producing your own harvest from your own backyard. David, a Colorado homeowner, blogger and gardener writes of his garden: “Even with all of that going on, our garden is still producing food like crazy! The weather is markedly cooler (no more 100 days!) and we’ve been having some fluctuation in the amount of moisture coming from the sky. Autumn is coming, but that doesn’t seem to stop our garden from tossing out the last of the season’s bounty.”

Just check out a few of his photos and you can’t help but want more garden space or start your own garden.

Garden with peppers ready to harvest, courtesy of NotQuiteHippie.com

Did you have a garden this season?  If you did, and your crops are growing strong, consider canning.

A garden's harvest turned to preserved food

And gather the cherries from the neighborhood fruit trees to make a delicious jar of cherry preserves with this recipe.

Remember it’s never to late to start planning your garden, whether it’s contained to a potted plant or a series of raised garden beds.

http://8z.com/articles/my-secret-micro-garden

If you’re looking to rent an apartment anywhere from Boulder to Colorado Springs and find a great price difficult to find, you’re not the only one.

As a background, the Denver market needs to add about 4,500 units each year just to keep up with normal growth.

The rental market is in high demand because

• With job uncertainty, many aren’t ready to purchase a home if they may lose their job or get their next job too far from this home.
• New renters include some of the 35k high school graduates each year
• In the past year and a half, 130k people moved to our state without a job lined up but will nonetheless need a place to live.

John Rebchook, the author of InsideRealEstateNews.com has recently reported vacancy rates in several articles.  With only a limited supply with increased demand, higher rents are seen across the state. Here’s a culmination by area:

Boulder:

As previously reported by InsideRealEstateNews, the overall vacancy rate for rental homes in the Denver area is a record-low 1.4 percent. In the Broomfield/Boulder corridor, the vacancy rate is zero. Median rents in an article dated May 24th were:  Boulder/Broomfield, $1535

Denver Metro:

During the second quarter of 2011, the median rent in metro Denver rose to $863.37, increasing 2.5 percent from 2010’s second-quarter median rent of $842.70. Full article

Colorado Springs:

Rebchook wrote, ‘The average rent in the Colorado Springs metro area hit a new high during the second quarter of 2011, climbing 5.5 percent, year over year, to $759, according to a report released today by the Colorado Division of Housing and the Apartment Association of Southern Colorado.’  Article

Are you ready to get out of the renting game? 8z Real Estate has brokers across Colorado. Start browsing Denver, Boulder and Colorado Springs real estate online.

You may have heard the news, but if you haven’t Forbes magazine recently ranked Denver amongst the best places for young adults to live.

They looked at the 100 largest metro areas and ranked their list based on

• projected job growth rates for 2010 to 2012 (data from Moody’s Economy.com)
• cost of living data (data from Moody’s Economy.com)
• median salaries for 24-34y.o. employed college grads (data from Payscale.com)
• unemployment rates
• Census Bureau data on the number of small businesses and large businesses per capita
• percentage of college graduates in the local population

Denver was ranked #7 because ‘The Mile High City boasts a significant college-educated population, a note-worthy number of small businesses and a healthy job growth rate that’s bolstered by the presence of companies like Lockheed Martin and IBM’ (Forbes, The 15 Best Cities For Young Adults).

We think that Denver will always remain popular amongst the younger residents as well as those young at heart because

• Denver is an active city with plenty of outdoor activities
• Denver has a vibrant culture with events and venues from sports to the arts
• So basically its not just a place to live but the lifestyle of living in Denver…

Trailing Denver, Colorado Springs was ranked #8 because ‘The Rocky Mountain metro area is home to an impressive number of defense contractors and universities, ensuring big business job opportunities and a notable number of college-educated residents” (Forbes, The 15 Best Cities For Young Adults).

But in case you were wondering, Des Moines Iowa took the title as the Best Place for Young Adults to live in the United States because: “The corn-belt city has the most big businesses per capita, a brag-worthy unemployment rate, low cost of living and a flourishing number of young professionals residing in the area” (Forbes, The 15 Best Cities For Young Adults).

But really?  Would you really want to leave the Denver walking neighborhoods of Wash Park and Highlands for the midwest?  Or would you really want to leave those foothills views from most Colorado Springs homes for the midwest?  I can speak for those of us at 8z Real Estate that I think we’re pretty happy in Colorado!

John Rebchook from InsideRealEstateNews.com recently sat down with Lane Hornung, the President and CEO of 8z Real Estate for a conversation.  This monthly feature on Inside Real Estate News is themed about the Millennials (also known as the Generation Y, Generation Next and Echo Boomers) and the generation’s uneasiness about home purchases from the several years of economic downturn.

The millennials are the largest demographic category in U.S. history with an estimated 80 million members in the US. They were born from 1982 to 2000. This generation, coming to age, at least in terms of real estate purchases are an interesting group to consider.

The millennials are important for the real estate industry. There are more than the Baby Boomers, but they have a very different view of real estate.

As Lane Hornung said, “The ones who have already bought, may already have been burned by the downturn. The ones who haven’t bought are skeptical. They’ve seen what has happened to their parents, friends or other family members.”

Rather than looking forward to buying a first home many prefer to continue renting. Yet this, like many things will likely pass.  ‘They will want home ownership. But they will be buying for different reasons.  They will be buying for community, not so much for an investment.

For the full interview and more insights visit John and Lane’s article on 8z Real Estate

John Rebchook from InsideRealEstateNews.com recently reported that Denver was ranked 14th in metro areas to raise children based on the increase in number of children in Denver.

Over the last decade from 2000 to 2010 the number of children in the Denver area, aged 5 to 17 years old, rose by 12.8 percent.  Compare that to the increase nationally of only 3.8 percent.

These statistics were put together by NewGeography.com. Analysis of the report attributed affordable housing as an important factor for states like Colorado that increased the population of families with children.

These stats are also very quantitatively based rather than qualitative.  Las Vegas has had an increase in children residents in the state.  This is attributed to the fall in prices and great affordability of the area in recent  years.  Yet many would probably still argue that there are better places to raise a family.  What do you think?

Colorado is a popular family location. Certain cities like Castle Rock, Highlands Ranch, Boulder, Fort Collins, Parker and Loveland have each been ranked in different rankings for the lifestyles the are provides residents.

Recently several 8z Real Estate brokers were interviewed  to be a part of an article in 5280 magazine.  The theme of the magazine is ‘The Best Places to Live” in Denver.

Two of 8z Real Estate’s Denver REALTORs shared quotes in articles, Patrick Finney and Ryan Carter, along with the company president Lane Hornung.

Patrick Finney answered the Q&A section, titled ‘Not So Fast’ with insights about the fix and flip market.

The feature article was ‘Shiny, Happy Places.” It goes into detail about great neighborhoods and parts of neighborhoods and what makes them stand apart.  Get the chance to take a peak at the homes in the neighborhoods, while you read the 5280 article, without having to leave your computer…

East Washington Park

South City Park

Hilltop

Five Points / Curtis Park

Alamo Placita

LoHi

East Cheesman Park

Arapahoe Acres

See the rest of the Denver neighborhoods on our site COhomefinder.com or create a Denver real estate search to notify you of homes as they come available.

Have you found a neighborhood that you love and would like to see inside homes?  Talk with the 8z client care team about your real estate search and get the help from a team for all your real estate needs.

The news over the past several years has continued to focus on the real estate market and Colorado news is no different.

The economy has many home owners and potentially home buyers thinking carefully whether or not they can or want to buy a home at this time.

It should be no surprise then that in Colorado rents are rising and vacancies are falling. John Rebchook reported this in a recent article.

He and the experts in his article discuss the falling vacancies are influenced by a multitude of factors, from local real estate to the local economy including employment.  A few considerations include,

• The expiration of the tax credit and many first time home buyers being hesitant to buy or unable to qualify for a loan.
• Many young people moving to Colorado, where more jobs are perceived to be available.

He also reported the vacancy rates and average rents throughout the Denver metro and Front Range, in a separate article,  including:

2011’s first quarter vacancy rates by county were :

• Adams, 5.6 percent.
• Arapahoe, 6.4 percent.
• Boulder/Broomfield, 4.9 percent.
• Denver, 4.8 percent.
• Douglas, 5.3 percent.
• Jefferson, 4.7 percent.

Median rents for all counties were:

• Adams, $871.
• Arapahoe, $825.
• Boulder/Broomfield, $961.
• Denver, $818.
• Douglas, $1061.
• Jefferson, $828.

Currently the prices for renting are still less than buying.  There could be a shift in vacancies when more first time buyers choose to buy when it makes more economic sense in comparison with buying.

Trying to consider if buying a home in Colorado makes sense for you? 8z Real Estate has Colorado real estate brokers who can focus you property search for homes that meet your criteria and budget.  Or are you wanting to own Colorado real estate investment property?  We have brokers with experience in investment properties from Fort Collins, Boulder, Denver, and Colorado Springs.