THE ROCK -- Castle Rock Real Estate Blog

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.

Nothing is free right?? Wrong.

ColoradoListings.net --- Now you can view MLS listings for Denver and most communities in Colorado including Castle Rock for free. Here are some of the areas you can view:

Highlands Ranch real estate listings

Castle Rock real estate listings

Denver real estate listings

The unique thing about this site is that there's no contact info required to view the listings. Just put in your search criteria and get detailed information including pictures for each property. You can even request email notifications when a listing that fits your criteria comes on the market.

It is a really great tool for the buyer looking for MLS real estate listings in Colorado. Free is good!

I posted some new pictures of Castle Rock on my Flicker page.  Some of them are pictures from on top of "THE ROCK", like this one here...

Proposed by Holly Nicholson-Kluth, Douglas County Sheriff's Office law enforcement bureau chief, and Joe Stafford director of field services for Douglas County Animal Services.  The registration would require dog owners to register their pets to the county.

It doesn't appear that it will go through since many county officials seem to be against it, but according to Holly Nicholson-Kluth, dog registrations are very common around the front range area. 

I for one don't want to see my tax dollars wasted on a program that would offer such a little benefit.  I'd prefer to see some kind of discounted program that allows owners to embed tracking chips. 

There are some great real estate bloggers out there in Colorado.  Real estate blogs are probably the single best place to go for community information and updates... these agents and loan officers are on top of things.  I hope you enjoy reading some of these Colorado Real Estate Blogs: 

Kristal Kraft in Denver  --  Denver Real Estate & Relocation

Mariana Wagner in Colorado Springs  --  The 'Springs Realty Scoop

Silverthorne, CO  --  Snow Home Blog 

Bonnie Cox in Denver  --  Team Cox Blog 

Jessica Hughes in Boulder, CO  --  Ambiance Home Staging Blog

Osman Parvez in Boulder, CO  --  The Silver Fern 

Jennifer Steck in Denver, CO  --  Central Denver Blog 

Phil Leto in Denver, CO  --  Denver Lender Blog 

Denver, CO  --  DenverInfill Blog

Andi Durbin in Denver, CO  --  Rooftop Views 

I love the spring time in the front range area. Everything is turning green, and you get beautiful afternoon thunder showers and rainbows. Here is a picture of a double rainbow taken from just outside my house.