HOUSINGNEWS REPORT
STATE SPOTLIGHT
PORTRAIT OF A DENVER MILLENNIAL
• Name and Age: Matt Holt, 32
• Hometown: Denver “Growing up we never came downtown. Frankly it wasn’t that safe and there wasn’t a whole lot to do down here.” • Occupation: Vice President, Portfolio Management “I work for an investment firm and we run a couple of opportunity funds. We own anything from non-performing loans to performing loans.” • Transportation to Work: Bike “I bike to work every day (three miles via bike path). ... They are doing a great (job) of making the city more bike-able, so that is appealing.” • Neighborhood: Washington Park “I bike to work every day (three miles via bike path). ... They are doing a great (job) of making the city more bike-able, so that is appealing.” • Rent or Own: Owned since 2012 “In our general friend group, (there are) a lot of homeowners. They are all pretty financially responsible. Espe- cially in an appreciating market, they know you want to buy an appreciating asset. We also have friends who have gotten priced out. They were waiting (to buy) until they got married, so they are having to move further out from downtown.”
High-end development in Denver
problems in new construction. As a result, critics of the law claim, there has been a dearth of new condo construction in Denver during the recent housing boom. “As a result of builder’s risk and some predatory practices of attorneys, builders do not feel comfortable providing this product and, as a result, many first time buyers are finding it hard to enter the market, which can cause some ripples across the market as a whole,” wrote Greg Smith, the RE/MAX Alliance broker/owner in Boulder. According to Ochsner, developers are instead building apartments that can be converted to condos in seven years, after the condo-defect statute of limitations is passed. “Apartment construction is just crazy,” he said, noting that some cities have taken steps to remove the bite out of the construction-defect law. “They went ahead
and made some changes, for example taking some litigious power out of the HOAs.” Those steps to soften the construction defect law is good news for Kaufman, the broker associate in Englewood, who is working with a group of investors to purchase land for condo development. “We are working on two condo projects to ease some of the pain,” he said. “We’ve got land and we’re acquiring more land … now that the prices have moved up it allows us to insure it properly. “You need proper insurance, but you need people who do it according to code and do it right,” Kaufman continued, adding that the construction-defect law is creating a difficult environment for developers. “There has to be a cap. You can’t have a developer make $2 million on a condo project and they get sued for
• Kids = Move to Suburbs?: Not necessarily
“If my wife and I ever did have kids we probably would try to stay as long as possible. … With the gentrification going on, you are starting to get a lot better schools. You are starting to get some STEM schools. … People are just staying where they are.”
ATTOM Data Solutions • P13
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