Getting your player ready...
If you want a picture of how different this real estate market is from last year, look at Highlands Ranch, its neighborhoods and vast open space. Highlands Ranch residents are waking up to find their older homes selling like hotcakes; and they’re jumping fast to grab a piece of one of Highlands Ranch’s final and most alluring opportunities – BackCountry, the gated enclave that opens into an 8,200-acre scenic Highlands Ranch wilderness area.
You can get a gate pass today to explore BackCountry and its collections by three builders from the $370s to $900s – but expect company: “Suddenly it’s like open season,” said Austin Ellis, who’ll show you Shea Homes’ new Shadow Walk models from the $430s. “You’ve got to start looking at what’s here or you’re going to miss out.” The makeup of those buyers is dramatically different than in 2011 – overwhelmingly locals from Highlands Ranch and other Denver areas rather than ‘relos,’ who are reacting to metro-wide increases in home prices for three months running. “The locals have figured out the urgency of being in here,” says Richmond American’s Georgine Heagle, who has models in Vista Pines from $415,950, and nine coveted walkout basement sites. “They understand the better proximity.” Nearby, Toll Brothers’ Peter Spencer started seeing a rush of buyers in February – 20 sales of luxury homes since then, some into the $900,00s, many on choice sites near BackCountry’s iconic, private Sundial House clubhouse; overwhelmingly to local buyers who’ve been waiting for the right moment to buy. Just as telling, Spencer and Heagle add, is how those locals are asking for options to maximize BackCountry’s lavish setting: MUCH higher percentages that order finished basements, with guest beds and added entertaining areas. Of course, they all get BackCountry’s trails and private 467-acre South Rim open space, not to mention Sundial House with its Pikes Pub bar, spa treatment rooms and demo kitchen, plus the outdoor amphitheater and resort-styled pools and grottos designed to nurture new friendships. While you’re inside the gate today, you can get a feel for the open space beyond. “It’s a community whose time has come,” says Shea’s Ellis. “There’s nothing else like it.” Check in for a gate pass at the Discovery Center, just outside the gate as Broadway becomes BackCountry Drive. From C-470 take Broadway south 2.8 miles, past Wildcat Reserve Parkway; watch for the Discovery Center on your left. BackCountry, master-planned community backing to 8,200-acre wilderness in Highlands Ranch, models by 3 builders; grand opening, 5 new models to view; walkout sites; pass to tour Backcountry’s Sundial House & amenities; gift card drawings & refreshments today. Pick up gate pass at BackCountry Discovery Center; from C-470 take Broadway south 2.8 mi., past Wildcat Reserve Pkwy, left into Discovery Center parking lot just before gate. PRICE: Richmond American from $370s; Shea Homes from $430s; Toll Brothers from $590s; Paragon Homes & custom collections from $1 mil.