Blog Archives: 2006

The Durango Telegraph The Independent Weekly Line On Durango and Beyond [Vol. 5, No36, September 7, 2006] ASPEN – Pitkin County in early July adopted a law capping sizes of new homes at 15,000 square feet. Some homebuilders seem to fear even more restrictive laws could be enacted. Read More

By Joel Stonington September 4, 2006 It's no secret that Aspen's real estate market is absurdly expensive, nor that it has experienced amazing growth in the last 30 years. Here's another log to the fire: 2006 has already seen unprecedented appreciation Read More

TheDenverChannel.com POSTED: 2:16 pm MDT September 4, 2006 ASPEN, Colo. -- Even veteran real estate agents used to Aspen's stratospheric property prices find the latest trend amazing: up to 60 percent appreciation on several homes and condos in less than a year. "On certain properties there has been enormous escalation in value," said Ernie Fyrwald, owner of Morris and Fyrwald Real Estate. "Sometime it's very astounding. It's not the case across the board, but there are quite a few. Read More

County's homes twice average size; development rush causes big impact By Joel Stonington August 6, 2006 Large homes in America are more popular than ever, but Pitkin County is in a world of its own. Here, the average new home under construction is double the national average in size. Read More

By Tim Estin mba, gri| Broker Associate |Mason Morse Real Estate, Aspen | 970.920.7387 office
Authors note: In 2005 and 2006. I was the Aspen Board of Realtors liaison for the extensive 2006 Pitkin County Land Use Code (LUC) Rewrite. As such, I communicated policy, political issues, code changes, and their consequences to the Aspen Realtor community, property buyers and sellers.The new code was approved by the Pitkin County Board of Commissioners (BOCC) in July 2006 after a two year intensive review. Additionally, I also served as a member of the Pitkin County Land Use Code/Technical Advisory Committee advising the Planning & Zoning Commission and the Pitkin County Board of Commissioners on land use issues - For additional info, see authors profile).
(This original article appeared in Mountain Business Journal, July 4th, 2006)

 
The New 2006 Pitkin Land Use Code: A Primer
The Estin Report, July 4, 2006. The new 2006 Pitkin County Land Use Code is expected to be approved in mid-July by the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) after two years of discussion and an entire rewrite of the old code. The last time the code was rewritten was in 1992. Upon adoption, it will go into effect immediately. Read More

By Tim Estin mba, gri| Broker Associate |Mason Morse Real Estate, Aspen | 970.920.7387 office Read More

With significant changes o the Pitkin County land-use code that will put a standard cap on home sizes countywide as well as alter the process for exceeding those limitations, county commissioners hope to preserve the valley’s rural character. But, first, a bit of background. Previously, house sizes in Pitkin County’s urban growth were limited mainly by permissible floor-area-to-lot ratios, though projects with more than 15,000 square feet of livable space had to undergo a special review. In addition, exemptions were given for most houses so that up to 4,000 square feet of subgrade space and 750 feet of garage space were not counted in the floor area total. If you wanted to build a new house in a rural-designed area, on the other hand, Pitkin County restricted the size to 5.750 square feet of habitable space, under revision made to the code in 2000. If you needed a larger place you could purchase one or more transferable development rights (TDRs) from property owners who gave up their entitlement to develop part of their land in exchange for selling that right to someone else to use elsewhere in the county. Or you could apply for additional space, competing for it with other ambitious builders, through the county’s growth-management quota system, which puts a ceiling on annual total square footage of new construction in a given neighborhood. Now, according to the revision – the first complete rewrite of the code since 1994 – the 5,750 square-foot limit will be enacted countywide. Read More

By Tim Estin mba, gri / Broker Associate / Mason Morse Real Estate Aspen / 970.920.7387 office (excerpted from original article in Mountain Business Journal, Jan. 2nd, 2006) In last week’s column (Dec 21-26th), I focused on major demographic and socio-economic trends strongly favoring continued growth in real estate demand in Aspen and the Roaring Fork Valley. This week, I’d like to make a case – subjective, not entirely quantifiable - for Aspen as ‘safe harbor’, as a relatively safe and prudent arena from a wealth preservation perspective to buy and hold real estate Read More

In last week’s column (Dec 21-26th), I focused on major demographic and socio-economic trends Read More