Getting your player ready...
Fort Collins home builders are tracking good sales this year; and after a July lull they’re seeing more buyers out wandering their model homes again. What’s driving that activity, they say, isn’t the presence of the big high-techs and other major employers in the area – showing only modest expansion now – but rather the town’s appealing lifestyle, and creative start-ups that are drawn to it.
“We’re getting small groups of buyers,” says Tony Campagna with RE/MAX Eagle Rock. “People are realizing that the short sales are over.” Employers are as likely to be an oil-and-gas firm or a start-up brewery in Fort Collins’ historic Old Town, as one of the high-techs. That’s precisely the pattern that Robin Schneider with Ryland Homes is tracking, in 34 sales Ryland has marked since its March opening of three models at McClelland’s Creek, a mile south of the HP/Avago campus on Harmony Road. Sales dropped off in July, a typical mid-summer lull – but traffic is way up now. What’s motivating buyers, Schneider says, isn’t so much the presence of nearby tech giants, but rather three Poudre District schools with off-the-chart ratings, all of them walking distance from McClelland Creek: Fossil Ridge High School, Preston Middle, and right across the open space from the homes, Zach Elementary, rated 10-or-10 stars at GreatSchools.org. School information passes rapidly by word-of-mouth. “All of the parents want their kids to go to Zach,” Schneider says, adding that some buyers are locals making moves, while others come from out-of-state, hearing about schools while exploring with their Realtors. As if on cue, Tim Martinez walked into the models office, out exploring homes during the lunch hour. “You can walk to all three schools from here,” he noted, adding that has two teens, one in Fossil Ridge High, and a third in the middle school. Martinez, an operations manager with HP who moved from Chicago 13 years ago, was residing in a Fossil Ridge neighborhood and had no plans to move, when he returned one night to find a hand-written note on his door asking whether there was a chance he was willing to sell. Out of curiosity he followed up, and found an offer too good to refuse. Now he’s been back several times – tracking Ryland’s progress on delivering inventory homes that can be ready for fall move-in. “I know all of those people,” he commented, reading down a list of Ryland’s current contracts. “Our kids are all in school together.”Follow Mark Samuelson on Twitter:
@marksamuelson
