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.

With so much awareness around Earth Day and Earth Week, and with so many things to do in Colorado in celebration and observance of it, there are a wealth of ways to do your part.  Just for starters, I thought I’d share a few of them with you, and then celebrate the day myself by turning off my computer and taking a nice walk in the woods. (Making sure to keep an eye out for mountain lions, that is.)

• Visit the Nature Conservency in Boulder
• Walking to and from your favorite restaurant (preferably one that serves local food), or ordering takeout from someplace that uses bike couriers to deliver.  (Check out what Bimbamboo in Boulder is doing.)
• Check out the Denver Children’s Museum for their Earth Day activities for kids of all ages.
• Attend the Pikes Peak Earth Day Festival, a free, all-day festival in Colorado Springs April 25
• Start your vegetable garden, keeping in mind how to maximize your water usage.
• Visit your local farmer’s market.
• Attend the Colorado State University Earth Day Celebration and Student Sustainability Fair, going on all week in Fort Collins.
  

And because we don’t have to stop observing Earth Day tomorrow, remember that no matter where you are or what day it is, you can always use sites like FreeCycle and Zwaggle to pass along the things you no longer need without tossing them into a landfill.

Happy Earth Day, everyone!

When speaking of living in the Colorado mountains, the uninitiated usually shoot too far, mentioning the well-known communities of Vail and Aspen. While those are fine places to live, work, and play, there’s much closer, more convenient mountain living to be had in Colorado.  And with the economy taking the kinds of turns we’ve all heard and read about, there’s something to be said to living in communities that are closer to larger cities like Denver, where employment doesn’t depend so heavily upon the travel and tourism industries.

Here’s a list, from south to north, where some country living can be found, with access within about an hour of Denver and/or Colorado Springs and/or Fort Collins.  All links point to maps of the area, for easy navigation.

• Canon City–The southernmost city in our survey today, with the largest population of any community in its immediate vicinity.  It’s closest to the Colorado Springs area, although a lot of Canon City residents work, shop, and play right in town.
• Salida–A charming, small town in the San Luis Valley popular with outdoor enthusiasts, tourists, and artists west of Canon City on highway 50.
• Manitou Springs, Woodland Park, Florissant–Just up the road from Colorado Springs, these scenic, quiet places are known for their funky town atmosphere, their natural springs, and their clean, crisp air.
• Conifer, Evergreen, and Idaho Springs–Along the I-70 corridor, on the way to the high mountain passes and the larger ski resorts, these beautiful towns are just enough off the beaten path to maintain a lot of their Old West charm.
• Green Mountain Village–The closest of the lot, Green Mountain is Lakewood‘s mountain biking and hiking getaway with great schools and lickety-split access to Denver.
• Morrison and Golden–Home of beautiful natural rock formations and the famed Red Rocks Amphitheater
• Nederland–Just 17 miles west and 3,000 vertical feet above Boulder. Where climbing, biking, hiking fanatics live and play, and where about 1,500 people do everything else.
• Estes Park–Between Boulder and Fort Collins is “Estes,” a favorite with locals and tourists, especially during the summer months, when the wildflowers bloom, and the roads to the top of Rocky Mountain National Park are open.
• Laporte–Up the Poudre Valley from Fort Collins, Laporte is an out-of-the-way respite that enjoys the wild sounds and sights of the Cache La Pourdre River.

After speaking with home buyers across the nation, it becomes clear that the quality of schools is always a concern raised by parents as well as home buyers without children of their own. It’s no secret that a solid school district is of importance to families with children, but the same solid school district can also be found to relate to solid home prices and market interest.

Some of the school-related factors that make for desirable neighborhoods include slower speed limits, invested homeowners, and a sense of community that translates into lower crime rates and higher quality of property care.

So that you can make informed decisions about the areas in Colorado you might be considering for relocation, check the Colorado Department of Education’s school rankings and report cards, online at http://reportcard.ode.state.co.us

There you can get detailed reports about how well students fare in standardized tests, and even what the average salaries are for teachers and administrators.  Of course, there’s no substitute for firsthand information, which is why most parents and concerned citizens check their neighborhood school district information well in advance, and make a visit or a phone call directly. You can easily get the name of the neighborhood public school when starting your search for a Colorado home by searching listings by school district.

Some Colorado cities with notable schools include:

• Table Mesa area of Boulder
• The Newlands Neighborhood in Boulder
• Colorado Springs, zip code 80920
• The 80124 zip code in Littleton
• Aspen
• The 80126 zip code in Highlands Ranch

Between Denver and its suburbs and Colorado Springs and its suburbs is an hour-long stretch of the I-25 highway that is booming with new and existing populations. Once considered “the boonies” or “no man’s land,” this corridor joining two of Colorado’s largest cities is now known as a collection of individual communities with lives and personalities of their own. Here are a few of the recognizable ones with an active roster of home listings:

• Centennial–As the closest community to Denver, Centennial is big with commuters who work somewhere within the Denver metro area, or the Denver Tech Center. Centennial is growing such that its municipal airport is the 3rd busiest general aviation airport and among the top 25 busiest of all types of airports.
• Castle Rock–A long-loved suburb of Denver, it’s the sister city to Highlands Ranch and Parker, CO. Castle Rock is the home to Denver Metro’s most-visited collection of outlet shops, but remains a place where scenic and natural beauty reigns. It’s quiet, prairie landscape with spectacular mountain views is hard to beat.
• Larkspur–A quiet country respite, where Renaissance Fair lovers flock to in the summer months. Just 30 minutes to Denver, Larkspur is the place where accessible amenities and the country life are not necessarily mutually exclusive, although they could be if privacy and solitude were your priority.
• Palmer Lake–The last cluster of homes before entering Pike National Forest. Did someone say scenic? Palmer Lake neighborhoods are all within reach of its namesake body of water, and views to die for.
• Monument–The hill that divides the north end of Colorado Springs and the Air Force Academy from the rest of the stretch. Just outside the Gleneagle community, Monument is a little town of its own served by the Lewis-Palmer school system, which serves Palmer Lake, Monument, Woodmoor and the northern part of the Black Forest area of Colorado Springs.

One (or more) Step(s) Beyond:

Manitou 4 listings today (check in for up-to-date data). Just up the canyon that winds a few miles west up the mountain that abuts Colorado Springs.

Fountain 8 listings today. Just ten minutes south of Colorado Springs.

Pueblo 23 listings today. The next major town between Colorado Springs and the New Mexico border.

Colorado City (which is not to be confused with the sensationalist news from Colorado City, Arizona) 2 listings today.

Walsenburg 9 listings today. Isolated and wide-open, Walsenburg is where you’ll find plenty of acreage. A tiny little town that serves as the gateway to the San Luis Valley by way of La Veta Pass.

Trinidad 4 listings today. A “last chance” town before entering New Mexico. Trinidad is a charming little town that has worked hard to retain vestiges of its Old West roots.