New town center for Westminster
Long Beach, Calif.-based Urban Pacific Builders LLC is building a new town center in Westminster that will include up to 750 homes. Plans call for a mix of townhomes, lofts and flats with 24,000 square feet of stores to serve the neighborhood. The 15-acre site is adjacent to the Westminster Promenade retail and entertainment complex. Amenities will include a central village green, community room, pool and spa, fitness center and business center. Boulder’s Oz Architecture is designing the project.
Students build home
Students from the University of Denver are teaming with Engle Homes to build a three-bedroom house in the Sorrel Ranch neighborhood. The student group, oper- ating as Paragon Home LLC, is part of the residential practicum at the Franklin L. Burns School of Real Estate and Con- struction Management. Engle Homes is donating the land and materials. Proceeds will be donated to the scholarship fund and to the Denver Children’s Home.
Latino buyers on rise
The growing Latino home-buying pop- ulation is younger than non-Latino first- time home buyers by four to five years, and they’re likely to pay more, according to a Century 21 study. The mean age of first-time home buyers is 30 for Latinos, 34 for whites and 35 for African-Amer- icans. First-time Latino buyers are likely to pay an average of $262,000, first-time white buyers $196,000 and first-time African-American buyers $215,000.
Mortgage rates rise for 10th straight week
Rates on 30-year mortgages edged up slightly last week, posting their 10th increase in a row and keeping rates at their highest level in more than two years. Mortgage giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday the nationwide average for 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages rose to 6.37 percent, slightly higher than the previous week’s 6.36 percent average. Below are average mortgage rates in Denver, Adams and Arapahoe counties as of Thursday and the previous 52 weeks. The one-year Treasury-bill average reported by the Federal Reserve Bank is 4.35 percent. The Cost of Funds Index for September from the Federal Home Loan Bank (11th District) was 2.972 percent.
