Garfield County joined the billionaires club in 2006 as the volume of all real estate sales in the county topped $1 billion for the first time last year. The $1.04 billion in total sales for 2006 was an increase of 22 percent over the 2005 mark and growth of 137 percent from 2003.

The oil and gas boom in western Garfield County is driving the real estate development boom in western Garfield County. An estimated $75 million of the $1 billion in commercial and residential sales in Garfield County occurred in Rifle last year.

Meanwhile, Pitkin County has remained above the $1 billion level in annual sales volume for each of the last four years. Sales volume topped $2 billion in 2005 and soared to $2.64 billion last year.

Read Scott Condon’s full article …

A recent NY Times article highlights examples of condos being built without associated parking spaces. Although this practice goes against the codes in many communities, planners are realizing that “free parking” might be a reason why housing has become so unaffordable to middle-income families.

The article quotes Donald Shoup, a professor of urban planning at the University of California at Los Angeles and the author of The High Cost of Free Parking, “In the United States, housing is expensive and parking is cheap. We’ve got it the wrong way around.”

Although condominiums without parking are common in Manhattan and the downtowns of a few other East Coast cities, they are the exception to the rule in most of the country. In fact, almost all local governments require developers to provide a minimum number of parking spaces for each unit — and to fold the cost of the space into the housing price.

The exact regulations, which are intended to prevent clogged streets and provide sufficient parking, vary by city. Houston’s code requires a minimum of 1.33 parking spaces for a one-bedroom and 2 spaces for a three-bedroom. Downtown Los Angeles mandates 2.25 parking spaces per unit, regardless of size.

Today, city planners around the country are trying to change or eliminate these standards, opting to promote mass transit and find a way to lower housing costs.

Read the full aricle in the New York Times . . .

There doesn’t seem to be any commodity that people’s pay can keep up with these days. Add Health care to the list. Although the rate of increase has slip to less than double digits increases over the last few years, health costs have still almost doubled (82.2%) since since 2000. Workers wages increased a paltry 15%.

Anyway you count the numbers, the results ain’t pretty for workers. Read Will Shanley’s article in the Denver Post . . .

Health care costs in Colorado have jumped 82.2 percent since 2000, more than five times the earnings increase for workers.

For family health coverage, the average annual premium paid by workers and employers rose to $12,386 in 2006, up from $6,797 in 2000.

Meanwhile, worker wages statewide grew by 15 percent, or $3,947, to a median of $30,337 per year.

Those findings were reported Monday in the study “Premiums Versus Paychecks: A Growing Burden for Colorado’s Workers.” Families USA, a health care advocacy group based in New York, prepared the report.

The village that began as affordable housing for workers at Ruedi Reservoir and the Fryingpan-Arkansas water diversion project is now the site of Shadowrock, a high-end townhouse project where prices will start at almost $600,000.

A powerhouse real estate development and acquisition firm from Dallas is building the first phase of the 100-townhouse project.

In the past, some observers snidely referred to El Jebel as “edge of hell.” Now it is home to several top restaurants, a collection of shops and service providers, a bowling alley and theater. Willits developer Michael Lipkin is completing the first building in what will be a 10-block town center with numerous more shops and restaurants.

Read the full article in the Aspen Times . . .

Medicare and Medicaid programs paid for more than half of all patient days at Colorado hospitals in 2005, fresh evidence that taxpayers are increasingly picking up the tab for health care at hospitals.

Data released by the Colorado Health and Hospital Association show Medicare and Medicaid combined to pay for 52 percent of patient hospital days in Colorado - the highest percentage ever reported for the state by the association.

Medicare, a federal program that covers people over age 65, paid for 34.2 percent of patient days statewide last year. Medicaid, a program for the poor that is equally funded by the state and federal taxpayers, picked up the tab for 17.8 percent of patient days, the report showed.

The balance of patient days are paid by private insurance, individual payments and other forms of payment such as workers’ compensation.

The government programs, especially Medicaid, do not fully cover the costs for hospital stays. As a result, hospitals are forced to shift the financial burden to private-paying patients and employers through higher insurance premiums, said Stuart Guterman, director of the Medicare’s Future program at the Commonwealth Fund, a Washington, D.C., foundation.

There are an estimated 46 million uninsured Americans. That includes about 767,000 people in Colorado, or 17 percent of the state population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Read the full article in the Denver Post . . .

Another small town on the Western Slope is booming.

The town of New Castle, 10 miles west of Glenwood Springs along the I-70 corridor, is growing and it’s expected to more than double in size when all of the current platted land is developed. The town currently has around 1,300 residential units within town limits. With four subdivisions now in development, that number will increase to approximately 3,740 if it reaches full build-out.

The subdivisions include:

• Castle Valley - 1,400 total units, 620 built or currently under construction.
• Lakota Canyon - 827 total units, approximately 90 built or currently under construction, half of the land is already platted.
• River Park - Approximately 150 units when complete
• Castle Ridge - 67 total units, 12 currently built or under construction.

According to Steve Rippy, former town administrator and current community development consultant for New Castle, the town is experiencing little strain on the water and waste water facilities because the town began expanding the facilities to accommodate the anticipated growth in 1999 and 2001.

The $1.2 million final phase is scheduled to begin around mid-September. This upgrade is an efficiency upgrade to the clarification system that returns solids back into the aerobic system for further breakdown. The addition of an automated grit removal system will increase the efficiency of the filtration system by mechanically removing solids before they reach the plant.

Expansions of the water plant started in 2001 with the addition of three water filtration units. Another filtration unit will be added to the plant this winter - the third upgrade in a six-year plan is scheduled to conclude in 2007.

Read the full article in the Post Independent . . .

Eagle County has exploded in recent years, doubling in population from 1990 to 2000, and reaching an estimated 47,530 people in 2005, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Gypsum has mirrored that trend, growing from 1,750 residents in 1990 to more than 5,200 today - and its not finished yet.

The old mining town, 35 miles west of Vail, is home to several major new projects, including:

• The Brightwater Club, which soon will hold 535 single-family homes, a Robert Trent Jones Jr. golf course, 27 acres of lakes and a village that will offer restaurants, a gourmet market, and a fitness center and spa. With homesites starting at $300,000, more than 120 lots have sold to date and 45 more are under contract, totaling more than $80 million in sales. The average Brightwater home ranges from $1.1 million to $2.1 million.
• A 155,000-square-foot Costco store, scheduled to open Oct. 20, expects to draw shoppers from as far as Vail, Aspen and Steamboat Springs. The store will employ 160 people and is expected to generate more than $3 million in annual sales-tax revenues.
• The Tower Center, which includes 475,000 square feet of retail, including at least two big-box stores, 330 housing units and at least one hotel. Tower Center is expected to generate at least $5 million in annual sales-tax revenue for Gypsum.

The town’s coffers have been swelling for several years. Gypsum’s real estate transfer tax grew from $704,800 in 2004 to $1.48 million last year. Sales-tax revenues grew from $1.46 million in 2004 to $2.33 million last year.

Sales-tax revenue from the new projects will help Gypsum pay off its new $12.2 million recreation center - scheduled to open in November - in less than 10 years.
Read the full article in the Denver Post . . .

Adrian White, Analytic Social Psychologist, at the University of Leicester has mapped the relateive happiness of all the countries in the world. An interacted map allows viewers to check out their own country “happiness” rating compared to other countries around the world.

Scandinavia has 4 counties in the top 20 (Denmark - 1, Finland - 6, Sweden - 7 and Norway - 19). Canada comes in with an impress 10th place while the US ranks 23 out of 178 counties.

The map is based on an analysis of the results from over 100 studies. It uses data published by by UNESCO, the CIA, the New Economics Foundation, the WHO, the Veenhoven Database, the Latinbarometer, the Afrobarometer, and the UNHDR.

Larry Swanson and the folks at the Center for the Rocky Mountain West have put together a interesting chart of construction activity by county. The map above shows areas of the U.S. with relatively high concentrations of construction activity in relation to area personal income. Dark red areas have construction labor earnings of $1.6 million and more for every $20 million in personal income - “very high” concentrations. Medium red areas have construction labor earnings of $1.3 to $1.6 million per $20 million in income (“high” dependencies) - note the group of dark red counties in western Colorado.

See all the associated charts at the Center for the Rocky Mountain West . . .

The red-hot real estate market has sent the median price of single family homes for sale in and around Basalt above the $1 million barrier.

The median price of the 27 single-family homes that sold in and around Basalt through mid-May was $695,000. The median price of 19 homes currently under contract in that same area is $899,000. The median asking price for the 19 homes currently listed for sale is $1,195,000.

While the appreciation is welcome news for sellers and most people who already own property, it also pushes the Basalt area out of the realm of affordability for workers.

At a recent public meeting, Garfield County Commissioner Tresi Houpt had this observation: "Aspen has the billionaires, Basalt has the millionaires, and we've got the working stiffs" in Garfield County.

Read the full article in the Vail Daily . . .