Keller Williams Realty of Northern Colorado

A commuter rail service, bus system and significant upgrades to I-25 are on the horizon for Northern Colorado. The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) was recently approved by the federal government for $2.18 billion to fund the improvements, the vision for which includes:

• A new lane in each direction of I-25 between State Highways 66 and 14.
• A commuter rail service connecting Fort Collins and Longmont.
• A new express bus system along I-25 with buses running from Fort Collins and Greeley to Denver International Airport and Downtown Denver.

CDOT is responsible for a 9,146 mile highway system with 3,447 bridges. Over 27.4 billion vehicle miles are clocked on the system each year. To learn more about the current active highway construction projects and corridor studies/assessments, go to www.coloradodot.info/projects. You can also access CDOT’s Long-Range Transportation Plan from the CDOT website.

Sources: Northern Colorado Business Report, “$2 billion NoCo transportation plan gets OK” by Steve Lynn, 1/10/2012.

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Posted By: Keller Williams Realty of Northern Colorado – Fort Collins CO Realtor,
specializing in Fort Collins CO Real Estate and Northern Colorado Real Estate
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970.377.3700

Two local health systems, Poudre Valley Health Systems (PVHS) and Banner Health, made Top 5 rankings in Thomson Reuters annual health systems study.

After examining 30-day mortality rates, survival rates, medical complications, length of stay and overall patient safety for over 300 health systems, Thomson Reuter pulled the Top 5 Health Systems in the following categories: small (operating expenses less than $750 million), medium (operating expenses between $750 million and $1.5 billion) and large (operating expenses over $1.5 billion). PVHS made the Top 5 for small health systems and Banner Health made the Top 5 for large health systems.

PVHS provides services for northern Colorado, southern Wyoming, and western Nebraska. Fort Collins is home to two PVHS hospitals and PVHS’s Medical Center of the Rockies just recently opened their doors in Loveland. In 2008, PVHS received the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award for extraordinary performance.

Banner Health owns and operates the McKee Medical Center in Loveland and the North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley. Additional recent awards and honors for Banner Health include the HealthGrades® 2011 Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence™ and HealthGrades® 2011 Emergency Medicine Excellence Award™.

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Posted By: Keller Williams Realty of Northern Colorado – Fort Collins CO Realtor,
specializing in Fort Collins CO Real Estate and Northern Colorado Real Estate
Pictures of Fort Collins

970.377.3700

December 2011 Fort Collins Real Estate market statistics are in. Each month we track the following leading market indicators for Fort Collins, Colorado:

• Under Contract = Number of properties under contract
• Sold = Number of sold properties
• Months Supply of Inventory = The MSI is an estimate of how long it will take for all the homes in a market area to be sold, or absorbed, based on the number of homes currently on the market and the rate that homes have sold in the past. A market is considered balanced when the MSI falls between 5-7 months. Under 5 months is considered a seller’s market and over 7 months is considered a buyer’s market.

December 2011 ’09 ’10 ’11 % Change Between ’09-’11 Under Contract 123 167 189 13% Sold 155 164 196 20% Months Supply of Inventory 8.9 6.6 4.9 -26%	December 2011 ’09 ’10 ’11 % Change Between ’09-’11 Under Contract 21 40 45 13% Sold 31 43 47 9% Months Supply of Inventory 12.8 6.7 3.9 -42%
November 2011 ’09 ’10 ’11 % Change Between ’10-’11 Under Contract 134 140 165 18% Sold 170 139 162 17% Months Supply of Inventory 8.9 9.0 6.5 -28%	November 2011 ’09 ’10 ’11 % Change Between ’10-’11 Under Contract 22 17 26 53% Sold 42 13 28 115% Months Supply of Inventory 12.9 18.4 7.8 -58%
October 2011 ’09 ’10 ’11 % Change Between ’10-’11 Under Contract 184 190 169 -11% Sold 243 185 176 -5% Months Supply of Inventory 7.0 7.2 7.2 0%	October 2011 ’09 ’10 ’11 % Change Between ’10-’11 Under Contract 51 38 46 21% Sold 53 38 48 26% Months Supply of Inventory 5.7 8.1 4.7 -42%

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Posted By: Keller Williams Realty of Northern Colorado – Fort Collins Real Estate Agents,
specializing in Fort Collins Real Estate and Northern Colorado Real Estate
Pictures of Fort Collins

970.377.3700

Inman News recently used Zillow.com data to compile a list of nine markets with rising real estate values. More specifically, metro areas were examined for year-over-year median home-value increases from October 2010 to October 2011. Fort Collins came in at #6 with a 1.3% year-over-year increase in median home-value:

9 markets with rising real estate values
1. Tulsa, Oklahoma
2. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
3. Lincoln, Nebraska
4. Madison, Wisconsin
5. Honolulu, Hawaii
6. Fort Collins, Colorado
7. Fort Myers, Florida
8. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
9. Boulder, Colorado

According to the report, the median value of a home in Fort Collins is $217,300. Mortgage rates continue to push lower, dropping to 3.98% from 4.23% in October of 2010, offering historic affordability to today’s home buyers. While mortgage lending conditions continue to be a challenge, more and more people are seeing the advantage of buying a home sooner rather than later. This bodes well for the Fort Collins housing market.

>> Click here to start your Fort Collins home search!

You can read the complete Inman News report at:
http://www.inman.com/news/2012/01/4/9-markets-with-rising-real-estate-values.

Thanks for reading our Fort Collins Real Estate Blog!
Posted By: Keller Williams Realty of Northern Colorado – Fort Collins CO Realtor,
specializing in Fort Collins CO Real Estate and Northern Colorado Real Estate
Pictures of Fort Collins

970.377.3700

1/3-4: Winter Break Camp, GOSC
1/6: First Friday Gallery Walk, Downtown
1/7: The Dinner Detective, Midtown Arts Center
1/13-14: STOMP, Lincoln Center
1/14: Winter Farmer’s Market, Opera Galleria
1/14: Designing Edible Landscapes, GOSC
1/16: MLK Day Celebration, CSU-Lory Center
1/19: Food for Thought Film Series, Everyday Joe’s
1/26: eTown Live Taping, Lincoln Center
1/27: Hayes Carll, Mishawaka
1/28: Winter Farmer’s Market, Opera Galleria
1/28: Gardening on the Cutting Edge, GOSC
1/31: Food for Thought Film Series, Everyday Joe’s

* GOSC: Gardens on Spring Creek
* Old Town Ice Skating Rink open throughout January!

* Monday’s: Swingin’ Mondays – Dancing event @ Masonic Lodge Event Center
* Throughout January: Avenue Q – The Musical playing @ the Midtown Arts Center!
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Tis’ the season for merry wishes of a safe and happy holiday. According to the recently released Farmers Insurance Secure Places to Live Survey, the Fort Collins-Loveland metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a great place for just such a holiday.

Air quality, life expectancy, mortality rates from cancer and motor vehicle accidents, crime statistics, housing depreciation, foreclosures, job loss numbers, terrorist threats, extreme weather, risk of natural disasters, and environmental hazards were taken into consideration for 379 metropolitan areas. After crunching the numbers, the Fort Collins-Loveland area came in as ninth-most secure mid-sized MSA (populations from 150,000 to 500,000). This ranking comes of the heels of Allstate Insurance ranking Fort Collins as the #1 Safest Driving City.

Boulder, CO also took a top spot on the mid-sized MSA’s Secure Places to Live Survey, coming in at #2. You can read the complete Farmers Insurance press release at:
http://www.farmers.com/12_15_11_SecureCities.html.

Thanks for reading our Fort Collins Real Estate Blog!
Posted By: Keller Williams Realty of Northern Colorado – Fort Collins CO Realtor,
specializing in Fort Collins CO Real Estate and Northern Colorado Real Estate
Pictures of Fort Collins

970.377.3700

by Joy Ferguson, Relocation Director

For a real energy boost it was a pleasure to sit down with Bonnie Tilford and Danielle Spitz of The Design Team at Keller Williams Realty of Northern Colorado. Two young women with a dream and a business plan to make it happen!

- A Conversation with Bonnie & Danielle -

Bonnie and Danielle, could you tell us a little about yourselves? Danielle: I was born and raised here in Fort Collins, and I just can’t seem to find any reason to leave! I absolutely love living here. I graduated from Rocky Mountain High School in 2006, went to CSU for a year and then transferred to Front Range Community College (FRCC) where I graduated from in December 2009 with an Associate Degree in Interior Design. I grew up skiing and snowboarding in the Colorado Mountains, and it is still one of my favorite things to do. I have a 4-year old Pitbull-Beagle mix named Molly, whom I absolutely adore.

Bonnie: I was born Edmonton, Alberta and grew up in Gimli, Manitoba, where I graduated high school. After high school, I moved to New York City to pursue a singing career. I released my own album, but soon realized the entertainment industry was not for me. While living in NYC, however, I met my husband Mike. Mike moved to Fort Collins in the summer of 2005, and I was soon to follow. I earned an Associate Degree in Interior Design from FRCC in May 2010, where I met Danielle. Mike and I were married in October of 2010, and we have two German Shorthair Pointers – Charlie and Frankie.

What led you into a career in real estate? Danielle: I knew I wanted to get involved in Real Estate before I even started college, so I thought it would be a great idea to get an Interior Design degree because they go hand-in-hand. Bonnie and I spoke numerous times in school about Real Estate, and she decided it was something she was strongly interested in as well. After graduating from FRCC, Bonnie and I both enrolled in the Northern Colorado College of Real Estate with the hopes of building a business, combining our knowledge of Interior Design with Real Estate.

What have been your greatest challenges to date? One of our greatest challenges so far has just been building our business from the ground up. We both are SO excited about where our business is headed – it’s hard not to get caught up in all the ideas flying around and stay focused on structuring everything correctly from the get go. Learning how to manage our current business and generate future business at the same time as well as getting all of our systems in place is also a challenge. Obviously, the cost of starting up any business can be daunting, especially since we both started this straight out of college with little to no funds.

Any advice for other young women considering entering this field? One piece of advice we would give other young women entering this field is to stick to your guns and have confidence in yourself. This industry can definitely test you as a person, and you have to be committed in order to survive. Don’t forget to celebrate your successes once in a while, whether they are big or small. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the things you haven’t done yet, but it is extremely important to take a step back and notice the progress you’ve made. Also, we recommend you have a Business Coach to help you along the way. We have worked with Gary Rogers, Productivity Coach for Keller Williams Realty of Northern Colorado. This is the type of business in which it is extremely easy to get lost in the shuffle of things, and working with a Business Coach can help you significantly shorten the learning curve.

http://designteam.kwrealty.com
Click here to LIKE The Design Team on Facebook!

Joy Ferguson Relocation Director  Keller Williams Realty of Northern Colorado 2580 E Harmony Rd, #301 Fort Collins, CO 80528 JoyFerguson@kwnoco.com (970) 576-5418

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posted by: Joy Ferguson, Relocation Director at Keller Williams Realty of Northern Colorado
Moving to Fort Collins? Visit our Fort Collins City Guide for information about our community.
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The Fort Collins’ housing market did not overeat for Thanksgiving. After crunching job, price appreciation, population growth and income growth numbers, Builder Magazine ranked Fort Collins-Loveland as the #2 Healthiest Housing Market in the United States. A projected 2.7% increase in the number of households in 2012 put the area first in that category out of all of the Top 20 markets. Employment and median income are also projected to head due north in the next year.

The Fort Collins-Loveland area was also listed in the National Association of Home Builders/First American Improving Markets Index (IMI) released in November. The area was one of only 30 Metros in the United States to make the list, which recognizes metropolitan areas that have shown improvements for a minimum of six months in housing permits, employment and housing prices.

Additional Links:
Healthiest Housing Markets: Mid-2011 Update
Improving Markets Index Expands to 30 Metros in November

Sources: Builder Online, “Healthiest Housing Markets: Mid-2011 Updates” by Boyce Thompson, 9/15/11; RealEstateRama.com, “Improving Markets Index Expands to 30 Metros in November” by NAHB, 11/7/2011.

Thanks for reading our Fort Collins Real Estate Blog!
Posted By: Keller Williams Realty of Northern Colorado – Fort Collins CO Realtor,
specializing in Fort Collins CO Real Estate and Northern Colorado Real Estate
Pictures of Fort Collins

970.377.3700