THE ROCK -- Castle Rock Real Estate Blog

I'm happy to announce that we've launched a new website for businesses in Castle Rock.  It's a unique place for people to find the best companies in Castle Rock.  It's completely exclusive, and only allows the best businesses.

It's driven by reivews and ratings made by the general public and has a unique feature that allows people to view coupons, promotions and news provided by each company.

We hope you enjoy it!

It's called Focus on Castle Rock :  www.FocusOnCastleRock.com 

According to the Denver Post:

"Castle Pines North took a big lead Wednesday in the race to become the newest municipality in one of the metro region's wealthiest and fastest-growing areas. Douglas County District Judge Vincent R. White approved the incorporation petition for Castle Pines North, the last legal hurdle for a vote in the community of 10,000 residents. Neighboring Castle Pines Village must redraft its incorporation paperwork to accommodate a tax-sharing deal it reached with Castle Pines North last month, then return to the courts for approval."

 

This is an interesting development in the Douglas County area.  It just shows how rapidly Douglas County is growing.  Lone Tree became an incorporated  municipality in 1995, and now Castle Pines North.  The judge approved it, now they just have to vote it in, which will probably be a piece of cake.

Castle Pines is currently a sub division (if you can call it that) of Castle Rock, CO.  It happens to be one of the nicest areas in all of Colorado to live.  Home to some of the ritziest mansions, golf courses, and living found anywhere, you'll find many famous people including players from the Broncos, Avalanche, and Rockies who live in the area.  

I don't imagine the town of Castle Rock is too pleased with the decision as it probably is a huge source of tax revenue... that is just a guess on my part.  I'm no pro at local gov't, but I'll bet the town of Castle Rock will take a hit in some form or another if the vote goes through.

Stay tuned for more news on the subject... 

There aren't many great tools out there that let you actually search active MLS listings for all the homes for sale in Castle Rock Colorado.  But we have built a site that lets you do just that.  Simply fill in the criteria on the type of home you are interested in, and it pulls active MLS listings.

All this is free without any obligation or contact information to provide.  Get active listings on your terms!  Visit ColoradoListings.net

This free tool will not only let you search Castle Rock Homes for sale, but any listings in most of Colorado!

Well, I'm a little late to the punch here because many of the best events of the summer have already past like the 20th Annual Elephant Rock Cycling Festival, The Castle Rock Art Walk, and the Parker Country Festival. But there are still plenty of great events still to happen this summer. Here is an ongoing list... If you know of any more, please share!

Starlight Summer Movie Festival

This is so fun! Every summer, a few nights are set aside for a town movie night. The festivities start at 6:30 pm with a massive street festival on 2nd Street between Perry and Wilcox. Then at 8:30, the movie starts. Bring your kids and your lawn chair. On July 7th come see Spider Man 2, and on September 1st, RV.

Music in the Courtyard

You can see live music every Thursday night in downtown Castle Rock at the courtyard. For more info call: 303-688-2622

Renaissance Festival

This is a HUGE event. People from all over Colorado drive to see live jousting, sword fighting, and enjoy medieval fun and great food. It is held in the Larkspur area which is only about 15 minutes from Castle Rock. It is held every weekend from June 9th - July 29th For more information visit: www.coloradorenaissance.com

Relay For Life - June 23rd

Walk for cancer at the Douglas County Fairgrounds

BBQ & Beer at the Grange - June 29th

6:30-9:00pm

Music in the Meadows - July 11th & 25th

Outdoor concert at Butterfield crossing park - Meadowslink.com

Castle Rock Wine Fest - July 21st

Free wine tasting at the Grange in the Meadows from 11am-7pm Visit Castlerockwinefest.com for more information

There are alot of other great events happening in Castle Rock this summer like the annual Castle Rock and Meadows Fourth of July fire work show. Stay tuned for more...

Douglas County just recently came out with their 2007 Annual Report... I have always been so impressed with the Douglas county school system.  Admittedly, my kids aren't at a school age yet, but I have watched my brother and sister in law both go through the system, and have been very happy with what I see.

I was pretty impressed with this report.  I'm going to give a few Douglas County School District Statistics here as found in the report.

As you can see enrollment is skyrocketing as Douglas county is one of hte fastest growing counties in the country. 

Comparatively, these are very stong numbers on both a national and state level. 

If you are series about enrolling your child in a Douglas County School, I highly recommend that you take a look at this report... it is very thourough, and gives lots of great information.

You can also take a look at the Douglas County Website for more information.

In a meeting on June of 2006, the town of Castle Rock, and the Douglas County school district decided to move forward with the addition of a new middle school in Castle Rock set to open in early 2008: "Castle Rock Middle School #8". From what I was able to learn, this middle school is going to be in founder's Village.

Everything was moving forward as planned when the developer in the transaction filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy leaving the town of Castle Rock and the Douglas County school district in serious trouble as 1.4 million was loaned to the developer for the project.

It still remains to be seen whether or not the town of Castle Rock will be able to recoup it's losses. It seems that a 2008 opening is now going to be nearly impossible.

You can do some pretty neat things with Zillow. In this case, I took a map of Zillow.com and used their heat map feature to show home prices in the Castle Rock area.

From the map you can see what areas of Castle Rock are the most populated, and on average how much the homes there are going for. As you'd expect, some of the properties on the outskirts tend to be more expensive because they represent larger lots, horse properties, ranches, etc. Then, you can see where the larger communities are located by looking at the clumps of color. As you can see, the Castle Pines area is typically the most expensive, and the more affordable homes tend to be in the Meadows, Founders Village area.

Zillow has also added some pretty incredible Satellite imagery to some areas. Here is a picture of the Meadows...

Since the short time I've lived in Colorado, one of the things that has impressed me the most are the views.  There is pretty much unlimited visibility year around... and for a kid from Orange County California that rarely got glimpses of the natural skyline, I have to say, it is pretty incredible.

This is a picture of Pike's Peak from Castle Rock.  It is a good 60 miles away, and it still looks like you can reach out and touch it.  Even the picture doesn't do it justice.

I just got mine in the mail a few days ago...   It's nice that the county sends these out as a public service.  It always kind of freaks me out when I get the Notice of Valuation in the mail because it's usually so much lower than I actually paid for the house.  But I remind myself that it's just for tax purposes, and I feel better that I'm paying less than what I did actually pay for it.

Along with my NOV, I also received appeal instructions that include a new process to file your appeal with the county assessor online.

Here is how to appeal your Notice of Valuation with Douglas County:

1. Go to http://www.douglas.co.us/assessor
2. Click on "File a Protest ONLINE"
3. Enter your your account number and security as found on your Notice of Valuation
4. File your appeal
   

Yes... I know... there is always new construction going on in Castle Rock... but I still think that it's newsworthy. This particular project is adjacent to the Home Depot right at Founders and I-25. My guess is that one of the buildings is going to be a Best Buy... I'll post as soon as I find out. It's always exciting when you see new constcution in our small town.