Boulder Tops Colorado Cities for 1st Quarter Appreciation rates

With a one-year appreciation rate of 1.99 percent, Boulder was the highest-ranked Colorado city on the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s listing of home appreciation rates for 294 metropolitans in the nation. Boulder came in twenty-third for the first quarter of 2009, while Denver-Aurora-Broomfield’s one-year appreciation rate of 0.80% came in at sixty-fourth and Fort Collins-Loveland’s rate of -0.12 percent was ranked ninety-third.

Though none of Colorado’s eight metros ranked made the top 20, they also did not land in the bottom 20 metros, either. Colorado Springs was the lowest-ranked Colorado metro at one-hundred and fifty-third; it had a one-year appreciation rate of -1.70 percent.

The Texas metro of Corpus Christie had the highest appreciation rate in the nation – 4.12 percent – and three other Texas metros made the top 20. Indiana, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Louisiana also had more than one representative in the top 20. California and Florida dominated the bottom 20 list, with Nevada and Arizona with one representative each making the list. Merced, Calif., whose home prices depreciated 37.80 percent from the first quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of 2009, pulled up the rear of the 294 metros.

Here’s a look at how Colorado’s and its eight metros’ home-price appreciation rates performed compared with the rest of the nation:

Northern Colorado Growth

Small communities lead state in growth-
NoCo towns at the top
Two of Northern Colorado’s small towns garnered the top slots for the fastest-growing communities in thestate from July 1, 2005, to July 1, 2006, according to the latest figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Severance in Weld County topped the list, growing from an estimated 1,978 people in 2005 to 2,590 in 2006,or nearly 31 percent. Wellington, north of Fort Collins in Larimer County, grew by an estimated 661 residents, or 19 percent. Its population reached 4,128 last year and was the second fastest-growing Colorado community ranking. Other Northern Colorado communities experiencing double-digit growth included Johnstown, 13.3 percent; Frederick, 11.74 percent; and Firestone grew by nearly 10 percent in the same period.

In Boulder County, Erie grew from an estimated 12,307 to 14,125, or nearly 15 percent, while Lyons experienced the second-highest growth in the county from 2005 to 2006 with 8.5 percent.
At the county level, Boulder grew from 279,508 residents to 282,304 in the same period, an increase of 1percent. Larimer County increased 1.6 percent, growing to 276,253 residents, while Weld County swelled 3.8 percent, topping 236,857 residents.

Boulder and Northern Colorado Population Growth