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LOCAL
by prospective clients. e shift comes as mortgage rates — the amount of interest people pay on their home loans — ticked steadily upwards in recent months, making housing that’s been rising in price for the better part of a decade even costlier. e only light at the end of the tunnel lately could be a slight drop in interest rates. But a drop in home prices might not be in the cards, one metro-area realtor says.
“I think it’ll be a small increase throughout the rst half of the year and then potentially a small decrease the last half of the year,” said Andrew Abrams, a real-estate broker in Denver who has rental properties in Je erson County.
But, overall, home prices are expected to keep going up, Abrams said.
As it is, the market is stagnating. Not only are there buyers like the Storinskys playing a waiting game, but many prospective sellers don’t want to leave behind the cheaper mortgage payments they clinched before, likely on mortgage loans with lower interest rates.
“Sellers are hesitant to sell at a lower price than their neighbors from last spring and leave their low interest rate behind, and buyers are afraid what the future will bring in terms of interest rates and home prices,” opined Kelly Moye, a Realtor in the Boulder and Broom eld area, in a statement.
A short break in price hikes
A deeper dive into the data shows that the median, or typical, price of a Denver area single-family home has seen a seven-month decline. e price sat at $587,500 in November — still eye-catchingly high, but just a 1.3% increase from a year earlier, according to the Realtor association’s December report.
By contrast, in December 2021, the change in median home price was up a whopping 18.3% from a year earlier.
Something to keep in mind is that fall months typically see a slowdown in price growth and home sales each year. But the degree of the slowdown since March “has been more dramatic than normal seasonality, and I think that is dictated by interest rates,” Abrams said.
It’s a calculation that means big changes for families looking to buy homes. Take, for example, a $600,000 home with a 20% down payment.
If the mortgage interest rate sits at 6.5%, the family’s monthly mortgage payment would be about $3,700, Abrams said. On the other hand, at the 3.5% rate locked in by buyers in years past, the mortgage monthly payment would be $2,800.
Feeling priced out
And so the Storinskys’ strategy to cash out while the market was at a high has come with a down side. ey were “originally looking at around $650,000, but interest rates the way they are, we’re probably down into the max $600,000. But probably, more realistically, $550,000 to $575,000 is where we’ll end up,” Stephan Storinsky said. e Storinskys are scouring the north and west metro area for a home – Lakewood, Arvada, Wheat Ridge and part of Westminster.
Danielle Storinsky, 31, a legal assistant, and Stephan Storinsky, 35, a utilities technician, said they’ve been more fortunate than many people in the market.
But the homes he and his wife have seen don’t seem worth it. e listed pictures of a place may “look great,” but in person leave something to be desired, he said.
“I’ve lived here my whole life, and I’ve seen what houses have sold for,” Stephan Storinsky said. “So for me, it’s just not worth it.”
“It’s hard to compete with people from out of state who come from California” and bring large sums of cash, he added. “Seems like you’re pricing the locals out of market.” e Colorado Association of Realtors de nes the seven-county Denver metro area as Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broom eld, Denver, Douglas and Je erson counties. e association’s latest report is based on November data.
Long-term price drop unlikely, Realtor says
Abrams takes issue with predictions that raise the specter of a housing market crash.
“I disagree pretty strongly, and I think the practices that were done before the Great Recession are dramatically di erent than the market today,” Abrams said, adding that “the lending practices back then were just not nearly as strong.”
Before the Great Recession, banks were giving loans to people they knew couldn’t keep up with them, Abrams said.
Another di erence: Fewer houses are on the market today, Abrams said.
In metro Denver, there were about 7,300 homes on the market as of Nov. 1, but in 2006, there were about 3 1/2 times more homes available, Abrams said. ough it’s tough to predict the market amid concerns over in ation and interest rates, the metro Denver housing market could behave in a more stabilized way in 2023.
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BY BELEN WARD BWARD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Brighton volunteers joined with a national effort Dec. 17 to mark every grave of every veteran in the city with a holiday wreath.
Wreaths are placed annually every December in every cemetery across our nation to honor fallen military members. The City of Brighton, Elmwood, and Fairview cemeteries join the Wreath Across America, placing wreaths on veterans’ graves at their cemeteries.
This year, the effort started on Dec. 17 and continues through Jan. 15, 2023. Sponsorships cost $15 per wreath and are matched with Wreaths Across America for Wreaths Across Day 2023. To sponsor a wreath, visit https:// www.brightonco.gov/1066/ WREATHS-across-AMERICA.
The deadline for matched sponsorship is January 15, 2023. Volunteers help lay wreaths at the cemeteries on the graves. If interested in participating as a volunteer, contact the cemetery office.
If you have questions, contact Rhiannon Natali at rnatali@ brightonco.gov or 303-655-2090 or Julie Meketuk at jmeketuk@ brightonco.gov.
Community feedback prompts 27J to prioritize increasing sta pay
STAFF REPORT
Teachers and support staff will get salary increases, thanks to November’s mill rate increase. 27J Schools Superintendent Chris Fiedler said in written statement prioritized this action based on feedback from voters in a postelection survey.
“We listened to our community when it told us its first priority was to keep our talented staff and improve our ability to recruit high-quality candidates. We acted quickly because we care about our staff and we want people to know we’re doing our part to support them,” Fiedler said.
Representatives from the teachers association and the district agreed to increase all areas of the teachers’ salary schedule by $4,900 effective July 1, 2023.
This increase now creates a new teacher salary schedule which will be used in the spring as the starting point in the traditional negotiations process which includes compensation for length of service and advanced education attainment.
All support staff will receive a pay increase of 2.6 percent which will boost all portions of the support staff salary schedule beginning July 1, 2023. Like the teachers, this increase will serve as the starting point for additional negotiations with support staff starting in March.
“We’re thrilled to make this long overdue announcement about salary increases for our teachers and support staff. Thanks to our voters who approved a mill levy override last month, we’re making good on our promise to our community that we improve staff compensation,” Fiedler said.
Teacher pay to rise in 27J
Anythink nature library plans to preview
STAFF REPORT
Residents and library users can get a glimpse of Anythink Library’s plans for a new outdoor branch - and the chance to in uence those plans.
Anythink Libraries and the City of ornton have entered an agreement to build a nature library on the current Aylor Open Lands property at 136th Avenue and Quebec Street in ornton.
Now Anythink has launched Dream & Design: Exploring Nature and Architecture, an immersive experience at Anythink Wright Farms where visitors can learn about and contribute ideas for the future Anythink Nature Library. e Wright Farms branch is located at 5877 120th Blvd. in ornton.
People of all ages are invited to create a diorama using natural materials, guided by a prompt related to one of the library’s ve focus areas: boundless, wellbeing, environmental stewardship, heritage and create beauty. Every two weeks, visitors are invited to respond to a new prompt, so the space will evolve over time. e Anythink Nature Library architects and design team will use these ideas to inform the new library’s design. e ornton City Council and the Anythink Board of Trustees signed an intergovernmental agreement in June 2022 that would lease 15 acres to the district, with plans to build a 35,000-square- foot nature library. e other 140 acres of open lands will be programmed by the Anythink team, and reserved for nature learning and exploration. Construction will tentatively begin third quarter 2023, with an anticipated open date in 2025.
“ is library belongs to our community, and so we believe it’s crucial for our community to be represented in the design process,” says Anythink Nature Library manager Maria Mayo. “We look forward to seeing what members of our community dream up as they design spaces and experiences inspired by nature.”
Design phase of the library project is currently underway, with ve main areas of focus: creating a space that is boundless, where nature education is seamlessly provided within the library; wellbeing, focusing on the health and wellness of the community; environmental stewardship, expanding individual responsibility to the earth; heritage, celebrating the history and culture of the people, animals, ora and fauna of the West; and beauty, creating a space that is designed to inspire. ese areas of focus are part of the prompts that guide visitors as they create their dioramas in the immersive space.
“Dream & Design invites the community to participate in the architectural design process in a completely di erent way,” Anythink Director of Strategic Partnerships Stacie Ledden said. “By engaging all the senses, the space inspires people to contemplate nature - whether that’s the Aylor property or a place in nature meaningful to them. Already the shelves are lled with hundreds of ideas, and we’re excited to see how those ideas grow and evolve over the coming weeks.” e Anythink Nature Library will be designed to support the wellbeing of the ornton community through spaces, experiences and collections. e library will act as a natural extension of the Aylor Open Lands and will encourage people of all ages to spend time outdoors learning about stars, water, wildlife and seasonal changes to help build a culture of environmental stewardship. is natural experience is intended to spark imagination and creativity, while providing a place to practice being human.
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O cials push for vaccinations
BY THELMA GRIMES TGRIMES@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Flu cases are on the rise, and according to state health officials, hospitalizations are higher this year than they have been in the past 10 years. The surge has a variety of causes, including people not getting the flu shot as consistently as in past years.
Dr. Ben Usatch, UCHealth ER director at Highlands Ranch Hospital, said COVID vaccinations brought on this onslaught of “mixed emotions” that resulted in other annual shots being affected — flu shots being one of them.
“The bottom line is flu vaccines are the best protection to get through the season,” Usatch said. “They do not hit the target right on the head, but they make a big difference.”
In reality, said Dr. Reginald Washington, HealthOne chief medical officer for Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Hospital and Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children, with all the flu strains, the vaccine’s effectiveness is between 50% and 70%. But even with those odds, people fare better through the season with the shot that has nothing to do with COVID.
“Flu vaccines are not 100% effective,” Washington said, “they never have been. This year, it is 70% effective. People are just tired of being told to get a vaccine. But it does need to be updated every year.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Prevention (CDC), recent studies show that getting a flu vaccination can reduce the risk of flu illness between 40% and 60% during flu season.
Even with the vaccination burnout, Colorado residents have already exceeded last year’s flushot numbers, according to the Colorado Department of Health and Environment, with 1.68 million getting the flu shot. Last year at the same time, 1.66 million were vaccinated. Still hospitalizations are increasing and health officials say people are not getting the shot at rates they did before the COVID pandemic.
Brian Spencer, with the state health department, provided data showing that pre-pandemic numbers had higher rates of vaccinations in Colorado. During the 2018-19 flu season, 1.9 million got the flu shot. In 2019-20 just over 2.1 million got the annual shot.
“In some states, flu cases and hospitalizations are at their highest marks since the H1N1 flu pandemic back in 2009,” said Dr. Eric France, chief medical officer of the state health department. “Flu vaccines are recommended for everyone aged 6 months and older, with rare exceptions. Flu vaccines are the best way to prevent spreading the flu to people who are most at risk, including older adults, young children, people who are pregnant, and people with certain chronic health conditions.”
According to the state health department, it can take up to two weeks for the shot to be fully effective, which means during holiday gatherings this month, the unvaccinated can spread the flu faster.
On a national level, the CDC reported at least 13 million have had the flu already this year, with 120,000 hospitalized. There are more than 7,300 deaths reported.
According to state health data, cases in Colorado include: • There were 306 people hospitalized with influenza during the week ending Dec. 3, for a total of 952 people hospitalized with flu since Oct. 2. • There have been 1,700 RSVassociated hospitalizations in the five-county Denver metro area, which includes Adams, Arapahoe, Douglas, Jefferson and Douglas counties, since Oct 1.
The state health department recommends: • Adults 65 years and older should get one of three specific flu vaccine types. If one of these three products is not available, people aged 65 years and older can get any other age-appropriate influenza vaccine. People can talk to their doctors about which vaccine is best for them. • Children younger than 9 years old who are either getting the flu vaccine for the first time or have only previously received one dose of the vaccine should get two doses of the vaccine. The second dose should be given at least 28 days after the first dose. • Pregnant women have more serious complications if they get the flu. The flu vaccine can be given in any trimester of pregnancy.
Medicare, Medicaid, CHP+, and most private health insurers cover the full cost of the flu vaccine. Coloradans without health insurance can still get the flu vaccine for free at certain health care providers. Call ahead or schedule online with your local pharmacy or health care clinic to make an appointment for the flu vaccine.
With the trifecta of COVID, RSV and flu cases increasing, Dr. Sam Dominguez, the infectious disease specialist at Children’s Hospital Colorado, said children should not only get updated flu vaccinations but should also have the COVID and chickenpox vaccinations.
With RSV and group A strep cases increasing, Dominguez advised parents that being fully vaccinated and keeping kids home when sick will help decrease illness this season.
Washington said besides vaccinations, practicing good hygiene in washing hands and getting tested for COVID, RSV and the flu when symptoms are persistent is important.
Flu vaccinations still have not gone back to pre-pandemic numbers and cases and
hospitalizations are increasing. SHUTTERSTOCK
VIRUSES
than-usual cases of RSV in children along with u and COVID cases increasing.
In November, Children’s Hospital sounded alarms about the unseasonably high rate of RSV cases, noting that hospital beds were in short supply because of the severity of the respiratory virus.
Dr. Ben Usatch, the UCHealth ER director at the Highlands Ranch hospital, said his doctors and sta have treated more younger patients this year than they are accustomed to.
With the Children’s Hospital south campus just across the street, Usatch said as they have lled up beds, the Highlands Ranch hospital is receiving an over ow of young patients.
“We will de nitely take them, happy to do it,” he said. “With adults and kids, we are seeing the big three — COVID, RSV and u cases are running rampant. With young patients, management is di erent and you have to make different decisions.”
Currently, Usatch said the hospital is lucky if they do not see more than 18 respiratory cases in the emergency department per day.
HealthOne Chief Medical O cer Reginald Washington said he has seen the e ects of the current season at both the adult and children’s level.
Washington, who serves adults at Presbyterian/St. Luke’s and children at Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children, said hospitals experience the trifecta of illnesses every year. is year, he said, is raising more concern as cases and hospitalizations are higher.
Washington said while treatable, u, COVID and RSV have similar symptoms to strep, which means kids and adults could have strep along with another virus.
With u and RSV season starting earlier than usual, local health o cials said it is important for parents to be cognizant of a child’s symptoms and if anything is suspected, get them tested.
Washington said there is a speci c test to diagnose all current viruses spreading across the Front Range. While there are not as many treatments for respiratory viruses, Washington said the sooner a patient is diagnosed with strep the better, because the disease is treatable and requires antibiotics.
Local health o cials said there are some unusual circumstances that could be causing the increased rate of illness this year. ose circumstances are three years in the making as the pandemic pushed society to wear masks to decrease the spread of COVID.
Now, masks are o and some kids are being exposed to viruses and infections for the rst time and their immune systems are not used to it.
While there is no vaccine to prevent group A strep, the state health department said there are steps that parents, guardians and caregivers (including child care facilities) in Colorado can take to help protect children and families.
Washington and Dominguez said children should be up to date with COVID-19, u, and chickenpox vaccines, as getting these infections can increase risk for acquiring a group A strep infection.
Besides RSV, COVID and the fl u- Health o cials are now concerned with the increase in group A strep cases along the
Front Range. SHUTTERSTOCK
