The Meadows Leads Denver Metro Area in New Homes Sales Through Q2

Relocations, First-Time Homebuyers Driving Housing Sales

CASTLE ROCK, Colo.; July 6, 2009 – The Meadows at Historic Castle RockTM, a master-planned community south of Denver, leads the seven-county Denver-metro area in 2009 new home sales after the first two quarters of 2009. According to Metro Study, The Meadows has written 98 new home contracts as of June 28.

“We’re finding that relocations and first-time homebuyers are driving sales,” said Jim Riley, president of Castle Rock Development Company, developer of The Meadows. “The Meadows is outselling the other markets because we’re meeting the needs of these two demographics. Jobs are driving people to the south end of town, and great home value and strong sense of community are helping to close sales in The Meadows for buyers that come in with great incentive packages from the government.”

The Meadows is located just south of the Denver Tech Center, which employs roughly 350,000 people and, according to the South East Business Partnership, a business association representing the area, the south east business corridor could see three percent job growth this year, or another 1,050 jobs added in 2009. The employment center has been adding jobs through company relocations and consolidations in the past year.

There are a number of reasons first-time home buyers are contributing heavily to the sales of new homes in the Denver-metro area. “In addition to the obvious—the $8,000 federal tax credit, low mortgage rates and being unburdened by having to sell a house in a down market—first-time home buyers have generally been less affected by the significant blows the stock market has taken,” said John Covert of Metrostudy, a national provider of market information to the housing and related industries. “But that doesn’t mean they’re not learning lessons from the downturn. First-time buyers are reluctant to make the largest investment of their life in an unestablished neighborhood; The Meadows provides a long history of home value that makes them feel better about buying there.” 

According to Riley, perspective is key in today’s housing market. “The climb out of the recession isn’t going to happen overnight, but the rise of the first-time home buyer and the relative strength of our local economy is having a positive influence on sales in The Meadows. In today’s economic environment we all need to make short-term rather than long-term comparisons. It’s meaningless to compare today’s new home sales to the sales of two or three years ago. Our frame of reference is 60 to 120 days out. Baby steps.”

Colorado has been singled out by a number of experts for its positive economic outlook. Recently, Forbes magazine named Denver the best city in which to buy a home based on data from the March 2009 RPX Monthly Housing Market Report. Additionally, NBC’s “Today” Show cited Denver as America's number one city on the verge of recovery from the real-estate slump, and MSNBC looked to Colorado as one of the top five states to lead the nation out of recession.

The Meadows has plans to break ground on a mixed-use town center in late 2009 or early 2010 depending upon market conditions. The town center plan includes retail shops, restaurants, apartments, single-family homes, and office space and will serve as the central hub to the community, connected to downtown Castle Rock through an extensive network of trails.

About The Meadows at Historic Castle RockTM
An extension of historic downtown Castle Rock, The Meadows master-planned community sits lightly on the land with some of the most stunning views of ridgelines and vistas in Colorado. The community offers 1,100 acres of public land including parks, schools, open spaces and more than 24 miles of trails, including over 7 miles of natural trails. The “Out West” experience that comes from being nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains is balanced by being only a short commute from the Denver Tech Center and downtown Denver. Seven homebuilders offer new homes ranging in price from the mid $100,000s to the mid $500,000s.