Getting your player ready...
“You’re crazy to pay $250,000 for a condo, when you can go five minutes further and get a house,” says Nick Dembeck, builder rep at Latitude at Vista Ridge – a low-maintenance, all-ranch enclave that has prices from only $229,995, for homes in a master-planned community with a golf course. Mike Montgomery, Boulder-based applications engineer who has been renting a townhouse in Lafayette, is taking that advice…and doing so considerably sooner than he expected.
“I was going to look next year, says Montgomery…however, “It was too good to pass up. I saw they had view lots that hadn’t been built on yet.” Now he’s on track for a closing, four days before Christmas, on a new ranch that will have a view across open space to Vista Ridge’s Colorado National Golf Club course and clubhouse, and a panorama of Front Range peaks. Before he signed on the dotted line, Montgomery took his father – a retired builder who had served with Sanford Homes and Writer Homes, to see what Latitude was doing. “This is really good for the price,” he’d answered.
Aside from prices (Latitude has four inventory homes that are marked down substantially for buyers who contract before year end) what really worked at Latitude for Montgomery was the low-maintenance: smaller landscaped-and-fenced lots that get landscape maintenance and snow removal at only $125 a month. “I’m gone a lot, and that was a huge thing for me,” says Montgomery, who gets called out of town on work trips, but also bikes and does major fly fishing up in the canyons west of Boulder and out on the Western Slope. At Latitude he’s close enough to Boulder that he plans on biking into his job off the Diagonal two times a week; and taking some flight lessons at an air club at Erie Air Park, two miles west.
Meanwhile, Latitude’s and other builder prices are likely to take flight next year as construction costs head skyward, according to Ward Ritter, president of Chartered Homes, who converted Latitude to an all-ranch strategy last year, and saw his sales double. “We and other builders have already been notified that drywall is going up 35%,” he said, while showing off the ranches on year-end special. “We’re seeing increases creeping into the system that will affect all buyers next year.” That makes all the more appealing a 3-bedroom-plus-study, 2,990-foot ranch with 2-car garage that Chartered has set to deliver by Christmas, at $299,900 – right around $100/foot. It comes with granite counters, stainless appliances and Tharp custom cabinetry, in a kitchen with a big center island.
Dembeck and partner Dave Rosenberg can show you that home today…along with another 3-bedroom year-end priced at only $249,995. They’ll also show you nine lots Chartered has that back to fairways 9, 10 and 11 – probably the best views that will ever be offered at Vista Ridge. At Latitude’s current prices, a buyer could be on the course with a view over the bunkers to the mountains, for as little as $249,995. “You could treat yourself to a great value this holiday season, and close on it in 2012,” Dembeck notes.
Montgomery adds that he had a good experience with Chartered’s staff in making custom modifications – including adding a whole house fan that he plans to use to offset air conditioning costs for at least part of the summer. To view Latitude, as well as the clubhouse, pool/tennis centers and other amenities that are included in the low maintenance/HOA fee, take I-25 north from 120th, seven miles to Highway 7; then west to Vista Ridge’s entry at Mountain View; or from Boulder, take Baseline east 13 miles.
If you go…
WHERE: Latitude at Vista Ridge, attainably priced single-family patio ranches, four furnished models, lock-n-leave lifestyle, golf-view sites, country club amenities, Special year-end prices on 2 homes. 1930 Windemere Ln., Erie; Hwy 7 at Mountain View Blvd (Vista Ridge entry closest to I-25). Take I-25 north past 470 to Hwy 7, west 2 mi. to Mountain View; or from Boulder, take Baseline east to Mountain View
PRICE: From $229,995, on golf lots from $249,995
WHEN: Today & Saturday 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.; Sunday 11-5
PHONE: 303-828-5442 WEB: latitudeatvistaridge.com
Mark Samuelson is president of Samuelson & Associates, a homebuilding/real estate communications firm. You can e-mail him at mark@samuelsonassoc.com.
