Westerly Creek Neighborhood Part 1: Denver's Hottest Investor Neighborhood is Surrounded by Real Estate Gold.
What is that old Real Estate adage again? Oh yeah, Location, Location, Location!! And when our clients tell us they want the hottest neighborhood in town but can only afford 1/3 of that neighborhood's price point, as Realtors what do we do. We take them to the next closest area. And in an up market those "surrounding" neighborhoods end up taking on a new name and character that ties in with the "original" neighborhood.
Here in Denver classic examples are Washington Park and then West Wash Park, Highlands and then NoHi, LoHi and Highlands/Berkeley.
The newest of these cusp neighborhoods is what I would like to start calling Westerly Creek. It currently doesn't have a name. Most Realtors and buyers call it "you know, that area between Stapleton and Lowry?" There are several different legal names and in MLS it can be called East Montrose, Wellington, East Colfax, Aurora Heights, Hoffman Heights. Then of course you get the Realtor stretches that call it South Stapleton, North Lowry, and East Montclair. I love those.
The Westerly Creek neighborhood homes don't have some of the charm that the houses of the older neighborhoods have. Most homes were built in the 50's, but that hasn't stopped neighborhoods like Platte Park, Uhills and Virginia Village from having a big resurgence as the surrounding areas's values increased.
What has created the opportunity to make this neighborhood raise to a new level is the location of the Westerly Creek neighborhood.25 years ago this area was not very sought after. They were blocks that ran parallel with the runways of the old Stapleton airport and literally blocks from planes as they landed and took off. Many of these homes qualified for grants for new windows that were ahead of their time in sound proofing and weather proofing. Many of these windows are still on these homes so very few have old windows.(one of the major costs in renovating a house). Westerly Creek also was surrounded by an Air Force base, a plighted Veterans Hospital, the worst part of Colfax and the DU Law school that had closed it's doors and moved to the main DU Campus.
25 years later those 4 negatives have turned into huge positives. The College campus in Park Hill has become Johnson and Wales University, The old VA has been renovated and is now part of the largest medical community in the country. It also includes the University of Colorado Medical school with The Children's Hospital and it is currently the largest sources of jobs in the Denver Metro area. Stapleton, The old airport is now the largest and best infill project in the country where home sales are consistently the tops in the state, it is currently about 40% complete. And Lowry the old air force base is nearly complete as another infill project that has luxury homes and is a had a very successful sales trend history. These surrounding areas now furnish jobs, amenities, and escalated home values surrounding Westerly Creek on all sides. It is also going to be within a couple of miles of 2 different light rail stops in the near future.
In part 2, I will go inside the numbers and why Real estate investors are snatching up homes in the Westerly Creek neighborhood and why you should too.
