Downtown Buyers Look Westward To Tennyson

Many potential buyers are not finding properties available and affordable near Lower Highlands or downtown. Consider Tennyson Street as an alternative.

Wow. The Denver Real Estate market continues to heat up and with most good homes for sale don’t last on the market very long. There seem to be three kinds of buyers in the Denver market to buy a home these days. I see these potential buyers as either frustrated, desperate or patient. All three groups trying to find listings near downtown might look a little further west to Tennyson Street.

The first group are “frustrated” buyers battling the historic shortage of homes for sale and perhaps still in denial at the rise in prices since just six months ago. The second may be those that have trumped “frustration” with “competitive desperation” and seem to be submitting offers well over asking prices just to lock in a contract and not miss out on another home. The third category I am seeing are “patient” buyers watching the market, sensing the bidding wars and homes selling for five to ten percent over asking prices (if not more) are creating another housing bubble that will pop once additional homes come to market and inventory grows. These buyers know what they want and what the inventory used to look like, and are not jumping at just any home but waiting for the right one. Sometimes that means watching homes they passed over go under contract within twenty-four hours or less. Granted it all comes down to timing and specific buyer needs. Some buyers can afford to be patient while others cannot.

If you are a buyer right now in this market and looking in Lower Highland and can’t find what you are looking for because the inventory is all under contract or not even built yet, I would urge you to take a second look farther west towards 44^th Avenue and Tennyson Street.  Years ago, as my wife and I prepared for our wedding, one of the only well-known places we used to visit there was the Ward Carter Dance Studio (http://www.wardcarter.com) . Thanks to the great instructors there, we knocked our first dance out of the park.

Tennyson Street offers an affordable option to Lower Highlands with cool shops like Winey Bean.

Nowadays, The Tennyson Street Cultural District has a lot more to experience. Tennyson Street from 38th Avenue to just north of 44th Avenue is packed with a mix of galleries, boutique stores and fantastic restaurants including coffee shops (The Winey Bean or Tenn Street Coffee and Books) to addictive dining (Parisi for authentic Italian http://www.parisidenver.com/ or Hops and Pie www.hopsandpie.com a great tap room and pizza place). None of this is “breaking news”, but what many people may not realize is the modern architecture so many buyers are snatching up in Lower Highland is also popping up within blocks from this stellar location for $50,000 – $100,000 less for a similar sized product.

For example, we just put an amazing property at 4433 Stuart Street with killer mountain views under contract listed for $549,900. An equivalent sized property in Lower Highland such as 3336 Tejon is under contract listed for $599,000 and it does not even have a basement while the one at Stuart provides ample room to expand. As a matter of fact, all along Stuart Street between 43^rd Avenue and 45^th Avenue you can see new modern architecture sprouting up like spring tulips and not everything has been snatched up yet.

Some are still available (at least at the time I am typing this). Another example would be 4337 Stuart which went under-contract before hitting the Denver Multilist offered at $599,000. This new build home has a finished basement. A similar sized property in Lower Highland, 3511 Quivas, came on the market at $699,900 and was quickly put under contract.

Now I know there are going to be variations to every rule, but there is still a fairly large price gap between these two locations. The point of this blog is to share my prediction that it will not be much longer before the pricing near 44^th Avenue and Tennyson Street catches up to the sale prices we see occurring in Lower Highland and closer to Downtown Denver.

If you have questions about Highland, downtown Denver or any other metro-area neighborhoods, I would love to hear from you. Please use the contact form on this page to reach me immediately for any questions you may have about the Denver real estate market.