Colorado Tertiary Markets - Where Do You See Growth?

Question

Colorado Investors - I'm curious what tertiary markets you are seeing growth in? With the rise of teleworking and people moving away from the city, I personally think that investing in smaller tertiary markets that are less expensive and have potential for future growth could be a smart play. Anyone have a crystal ball?

Brett Rosenbauer · Answer

I'm in Fort Collins and invest here, I see this as a growing market.  One of my investment properties we turned into an AirBnB about this time last year which is completely crushing it.

One hour north of Denver, good schools, etc..  In my neighborhood we have three Southwest pilots who have relocated here from California (2 San Jose, one San Diego).  Apparently Fort Collins and Castle Rock are all the buzz from Southwest pilots who live in California and have families.  Good schools and about an hour to DIA.  Downtown Denver is about an hour depending on traffic from Fort Collins, Castle Rock is a bit closer to Denver (though the road construction on I-25 is horrendous depending on the time of the day.  Loveland, Windsor, Johnstown, Berthoud, Berthoud, Louisville, Lafayette are all hot spots for future growth on the north side.

Colorado Springs I know is hot, homes are more affordable too down there too.  More opportunities for multifamily units from what I see than us up north.  I've also found myself looking in Cheyenne WY quite a bit too.  It's an hour north of Fort Collins so still manageable but I've caught the STR bug after experiencing a huge growth year in a COVID year no less so I'm probably going to keep things local so I can continue to self manage easily.

Steamboat Springs - Southwest just started flying into town, and IKON pass has made that town super hot. Selfishly...I'd love a vacation rental at some point in Steamboat!

James Carlson · Answer

@Stuart Grazier

Great topic. I'm interested in hearing about some actual tertiary markets, but I'll throw Colorado Springs out there. It's more a secondary market and not exactly cheap anymore, but if you were looking in Denver before, you'd think Colorado Springs is a relative steal.

Plus, there's still some good room to grow here. Amazon is opening one facility and is rumored to be opening two more. There's a ton of high-paying aerospace and defense workers. It's also a big draw to the growing number of remote workers and other coastal migrants coming from New York and California. The mountains are right there. Hiking and mountain biking is never more than 15 minutes away from anywhere in the city. It's Boulder but on the south side and with a wonky reputation for God and guns that I think kept it a secret for awhile.

Walk around downtown and the south side of downtown, and you might think differently. A new hockey arena. A new stadium for the professional lacrosse team. A lot of Denver eateries opening up shops down here. Tons of those ugly modern apartments are rising up -- the type of thing you saw in Denver 10 years ago.

Again, Colorado Springs is not exactly tertiary. I want to hear others. What else is out there? Someone sell me on Fort Lupton or something.

Stephen Spradley · Answer

I would have to agree with @Brett Rosenbauer

I’ve lived in Fort Collins for a few years now. I work for a large aerospace manufacturing company here in town that moved a lot of its operations out here from California about 2 years ago, and a bunch of the guys came out here with it.

Cooper Raines · Answer

I would like to throw Eastern CO's hat into the ring. There have been massive population forecasts for the area made by both the public & private sector. There are quite a few very large projects planned in the area. Prosper Farms is a proposed development just south of Watkins that proposes 9000 residential units and 8 million sq ft of commercial space. I would also recommend taking a look at Sky Ranch and the Transport project which is located around the Colorado Air and Space Port. Multiple national home builders have moved into Bennett such as Lennar Homes, D.R. Horton, LGI ect. You can check out I-70 REAP, they offer details on many of the big projects in the area. If anyone ever has questions about the area I'd be happy to help out.

Stuart Grazier · Answer

Colorado Investors - Trying to reenergize this thread: if you had to choose a general direction of where you think growth is trending most from Denver city center, where would that be? North, East, South? Not much room to go West.

Cooper Raines · Answer

@Stuart Grazier Yes and no on the affordability side of things, for example Watkins has an average sale price around $600k. Eastern CO has definitely not been immune to the inventory issues we are all seeing!

Stuart Grazier · Answer

@Cooper Raines That's really interesting! I can see how going East is definitely a possibility, as Denver obviously can't grow more to the West. As a military guy, I've definitely seen growth from Buckley AFB in Aurora and know that as military families continue to flock into Buckley and are getting outpriced in Aurora, they are looking East for more affordable and newer homes.

Stuart Grazier · Answer

Good stuff @Brett Rosenbauer. Thanks for the input! Are short term rentals allowed in Fort Collins on investment property? Any requirements to do STR there?

Stuart Grazier · Answer

There actually may be some strategy involved without having to reach too far into a crystal ball. Think about it: COVID has forced a lot of businesses to do more remote work which means many people can work from anywhere they want, as long as they have internet and good cell phone connection. Also with that comes the idea of people wanting to get away from the big city where there is more of a chance for exposure. So, where do people want to go to get away in Colorado where they can still have all of the basic needs met, where they can do their remote work, and they can also enjoy the space and benefits of their location? I'm thinking short-term to mid-term rental markets that aren't too expensive yet to get into. Anyone? Any ideas?

Will Fraser · Answer

Haha, speaking of speculation!  @Stuart Grazier I agree with you on the value of these markets that have a high potential for future growth SO LONG AS they perform appropriately now OR they are constrained to not more than 10% of one's total financial approach, or whatever percentage that person has set aside for speculations.

That aside, who has that crystal ball Stuart asked about?

Colorado Tertiary Markets - Where Do You See Growth?

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