Every month I listen in on what people around Boulder County are asking about housing: in local online forums, community Facebook groups, and the conversations that keep coming up. This isn’t a forecast. It’s what’s on your neighbors’ minds right now.
This month, one headline set off a lot of conversation.
“Did Boulder home prices just crash?”
On October 8, BizWest reported that Boulder’s median single-family sale price in September was $1,265,000, down 21.4% from a year ago. Within a day, a local Reddit thread on it had more than 50 comments.
Before anyone calls it a crash, a few things matter:
- It’s based on only 41 sales. With so few, a handful of very expensive or less expensive closings can move the median a lot in a single month.
- The rest of the area was mostly flat. Longmont’s median was $580,000, down just 0.9%. Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley were all within a couple of percent of last year.
- There were fewer homes for sale. Boulder had 174 active listings, 13.9% fewer than last September.
- It covers single-family homes only. It doesn’t include condos or townhomes.
The takeaway: One month doesn’t make a trend. If you’re buying or selling, the comparable sales for your neighborhood and your type of home matter far more than a citywide median.
“What will Issue 2K actually cost me?”
The biggest housing-cost debate in Boulder is still on your ballot. City of Boulder voters decide on November 3:
- Issue 2K, the $400M recreation and safety bond. It would add about $400 a year in property tax for the owner of a $1 million home.
- Issue 2J, the vacant home tax. It would charge $4,000 a year (rising with inflation, capped at $7,000) on homes that sit empty more than half the year.
Locals keep asking why taxpayers should cover maintenance that was put off for years. Many also point out that bills have already gone up from higher assessments and school and library taxes.
One thing people are mixing up: Proposition NN, on the statewide ballot, is not a property tax. It’s about whether Colorado keeps revenue above the TABOR cap for K-12 education instead of refunding it to taxpayers.
If you own in the city: look up your home’s actual value on the Boulder County Assessor’s site so you can estimate what 2K would mean for your own bill.
“How is anyone affording a home here?”
Two big online threads this month, each with more than 300 comments, asked some version of this. One was from a young couple in Northern Colorado trying to make the numbers work. The other was from a family thinking about moving from Phoenix to Boulder. The top reply there summed up the mood: “It’s beautiful. Bring money.”
Some locals are also looking just outside Boulder. This week a family posted in a Longmont community group asking about anything coming up for rent or sale in Old Town Longmont.
“Why do my HOA fees keep going up?”
This keeps coming up from condo and townhome owners. In August, Rocky Mountain PBS reported on a North Boulder owner in the city’s permanently affordable program whose HOA dues doubled, from $398 to $813 a month, since 2021. Rising insurance costs from hail and wildfire are a big part of it.
One commenter put it bluntly: “Taxes/Insurance/HOA killed us. $12k a year.”
If you’re buying a condo or townhome: ask for the HOA’s budget, its reserve study and recent meeting minutes. They show whether dues or a special assessment are likely to go up.
“Is there room to negotiate?”
Buyers keep asking whether sellers are really cutting prices. Some August numbers for Boulder (Redfin, all home types):
- 37.7% of homes for sale had a price cut
- Homes sold for 97.2% of list price on average
- The typical home took 60 days to go under contract
There’s room to negotiate on some homes, but it depends on the house and how long it’s been listed. Meanwhile, buyers in Longmont say hardly anything new is coming on the market.
“What if the house turns out to need a lot of work?”
- A Boulder owner who paid $1 million two years ago posted that the house “is breaking me,” with one expensive repair after another.
- A Longmont buyer said they were “severely burned by an inspection” and are starting their search over.
A helpful tip from the comments: standard homeowners insurance usually doesn’t cover sewer or water service lines, but you can often add that coverage for a small extra cost. It’s worth asking your agent.
“Can the county save the mobile home park?”
On September 30, Boulder County committed $11.2 million to help residents of the San Lazaro mobile home park buy their community before an outside investor does. They need about $30 million in total, and their offer is due by early December. Locals are asking why the city or county can’t simply buy it and keep lot rents affordable.
Also on people’s minds
- Rent-by-the-bedroom conversions: A $900,000 house near the Hill is slated to become a 13-bedroom rental, which sparked a long debate about whether projects like this take away homes first-time buyers could afford.
- Insurance sticker shock: People moving in from other states keep asking how much more home insurance costs here.
Have a question of your own?
Wondering what September’s numbers mean for your home’s value, or how 2K would hit your tax bill? Reply to this email. I’m always happy to pull the numbers for your neighborhood and talk it through.
Jennifer Egbert
Sources: BizWest (IRES MLS data), Axios Boulder, Boulder Reporting Lab, Chalkbeat, Rocky Mountain PBS, Redfin, Denver7 and Boulder County