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Colorado - Thu. 08/20/26 |
A Free Business Publication from Alpine Bank
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CONDOMINIUM MARKET IN DENVER HITS ALMOST 20-YEAR LOW
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Cooper Thayer of Keller Williams Action Realty’s The Thayer Group conducted a detailed study of the condominium market in Denver. The condo market in Denver remained very strong through 2022, when sales prices peaked. Prices now are down 14.3 percent from that peak, with 2,005 units expected to be sold this year. That's the fewest in over 17 years, only two more than sold in 2008 during the Great Recession. Condominium sales hit 4,901 in 2021. In 2022, the median sales price was $370,000. In the first half of 2026, the median sales price was $317,000. The price per square foot declined from $405 to $314 during that time. However, the compounding factor is the median monthly HOA fee has increased 87.6 percent from 2016 to 2026. The median HOA fee per month is now in the $500s, which can reduce purchasing power and the desire to own a condo, according to Thayer.
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BE BEAR AWARE: HUGE NUMBER OF SIGHTINGS, BREAK-IN PROBLEMS
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Officials of Colorado Parks and Wildlife are advising everyone to be aware that natural food scarcity has caused more bears to search for food in human-occupied areas and now is the time bears are constantly looking to eat. Since January, Coloradans have experienced almost double the number of bear encounters compared to one year ago, and wildlife experts expect that number to rise to record levels as the animals enter their hungriest season.
- From Jan. 1 through Aug. 13, Colorado Parks and Wildlife received 6,129 reports of bear sightings and conflicts across the state.
- That’s up from 3,115 during the same timeframe last year and already surpasses the annual total for 2025, which was 5,299. “This year is on pace to have the highest number of bear reports since CPW implemented its statewide digital reporting system in 2019,” the agency said in a recent news release.
- There are an estimated 17,000 to 20,000 black bears living in Colorado and they are venturing further into human-occupied areas searching for food this year because of widespread drought that has diminished their natural resources, such as berries, acorns and plants.
- Bears have been seen entering residential homes and roaming backyards along the Front Range and even helping themselves to M&Ms in luxury hotels in the high country. A female black bear attacked a man as he walked out of a laundry room at an apartment complex in the Colorado mountain community of EagleVail. A bear entered a home in Mount Crested Butte and unintentionally started a fire early Wednesday morning. The wandering bear started the fire in the home's kitchen, according to a post from the Crested Butte Fire Protection District at 3:02 a.m. Wednesday.
Encounters are expected to increase as the bears enter hyperphagia, which is a natural phase when they spend up to 20 hours a day searching for food to build the fat reserves needed to survive the winter. Nearly half of the bear incidents in 2025 occurred in August, September and October, as the animals scoured for calories, CPW said.
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TWO DENVER RESTAURANTS MAKE THE NYT’s “41 GREATEST MEXICAN RESTAURANTS”
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The New York Times last week published its "41 of the Greatest Mexican Restaurants Across the United States.” (nytimes.com/2026/08/13/dining/best-mexican-restaurants-united-states.html) It is a listing, according to the newspaper, that is…"not an attempt to rank the best Mexican restaurants. It is, rather, a mosaic of great places to eat, from food trucks to corner restaurants to tasting-menu counters." It was compiled from travels of more than a year of NYT reporters, editors and photographers. Denver was one of the very few cities with two restaurants named: Alma Fonda Fina and La Diabla Pozole y Mezcal.
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A FAMILY REUNION THAT HAS ALL THE STOCKHOLDERS OF A 130-YEAR-OLD COMPANY
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Most Coloradans, especially those that have cooked over wood stoves, campfires, or with Dutch ovens, know of Lodge cast-iron ware. In June, the Lodge Cast Iron company held its annual stockholders meeting at the company’s factory location in Chattanooga, Tenn. The annual stockholders meeting also happens to coincide with the Lodge family reunion. There are 70 stockholders of the company which has been melting pig iron and recycled steel to form cast iron pans for 130 years, and who are all Lodge family members and meet annually. The extended family meets every five years, also at the company’s expense. Hardly any family members work at the company, which has 570 employees. The factory does have workers who are from families who are three or four generations with the company. Lodge’s roughly 150 family members vary in how early their memories trace back to the company.
Most of the family shareholders each own less than 1 percent of the company; three own more than 5 percent each. Over time, their stakes will dilute further as current holders give their equity away and the ownership group keeps expanding. Stock-restriction agreements mandate that shares can only be transferred within the family, including to spouses and adopted children, or placed in trusts or similar entities that benefit family members. A “family council” started around 2017 organizes the family reunions and helps educate family members about the company. At the recent gathering, family members wore nametags detailing their generation and family branch. There was a tour of the foundry and museum, and a murder-mystery scavenger hunt.
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THE CONSERVATION FUND BUYS LAND FOR TRANSFER TO USFS: VIEWS, CLIMBING
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The Conservation Fund has acquired 262 acres of land accessing a lesser-known mountain in a range popular for its 14,000-foot peaks. The national nonprofit plans to transfer the private land it purchased on Loveland Mountain in the Mosquito Range to the U.S. Forest Service. An existing trail brings hikers up the ridge of the about 13,700-foot peak, offering views of nearby 14ers. The Decalibron Loop is a set of four 14,000-foot peaks: Mount Democrat, Mount Cameron, Mount Lincoln and Mount Bross, that can be connected and hiked in a single loop. The loop saw an estimated 20,000-25,000 hikers last season, according to the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative.
Loveland Mountain is 13,000-feet in elevation and provides an alternative to a 14er with less traffic and equally terrific views, according to Conservation Fund Senior Field Representative Kelly Ingebritson. The Loveland Ridge land acquisition secures year-round public hiking and hunting access along Trail #450 from Park County Road 8, the same road that leads to the Decalibron Loop, according to The Conservation Fund.
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MONTROSE REC DISTRICT SEEKS PUBLIC INPUT ON ITS PLANS FOR NEW FIELD HOUSE
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Earlier this year, the Montrose Recreation District sold its current field house at 25 Colorado Ave. to the school district and purchased the former Secret Creek building at 1227 Mayfly Drive. The Rec District has budgeted about $3 million for renovation of the building into its new field house. The district retained Reynolds Ash + Associates of Durango to design the new facility. Now, the district is launching a series of events to gather community input for the facility, as it is early in the design phase.
Next Wednesday, on Aug. 26, from 6 to 7:30 p.m., the district will host the first of multiple open houses and there will be architectural renderings for people to review and make comments. A second open house is planned for Wednesday, Sept. 23 at the same time. Surveys in English and Spanish are already available on the project site and include questions about how residents may use potential facilities and which ones excite them most. More information and surveys: montroserec.com/montrose-field-house-project.
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ISSUES AT THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ LED CHINA TO LAUNCH YEAR-ROUND “ICE SILK ROAD”
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Since February, countries around the world have been in a scramble to find an alternative trade route or routes after the Strait of Hormuz had effectively been shut down by the U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict. Last week, a Chinese container shipping company, Sea Legend Line, launched its first of what is scheduled to be a regular, operating route to Europe via an Arctic channel. China has been considering a northern sea route (NSR) since 2013, when Yong Shenge, a Chinese cargo ship, became the first Chinese ship to ever reach Europe on the route. However, the route has remained largely inaccessible because of the volume of sea-ice in the area.
The voyage last week traverses more than 3,400 miles along the northern coast of Russia, going from Ningbo, an industrial hub about halfway between Shanghai and Beijing to Felixstowe, in the U.K. about 70 miles north of London. The route has been labeled the "Ice Silk Road," and takes about 20 days to complete, which is just half the shipping time of the route that passes south through the Suez Canal. The key element in this development is global climate change, as warmer temperatures in the Arctic have transformed the NSR from being navigable only in the warmest months to one that should be traversable for most of the year.
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ONE OF AMERICA’S TOP EXPORTS, COUNTRY MUSIC, HITS AFRICA
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Many Europeans, Japanese and other people around the world, say that they learned English by listening to and singing country music. Now, country music has made a significant inroad into Kenya with the creation of International Cowboys and Cowgirls Day in Nairobi, Kenya, held on the last Saturday in July. The second edition this year at the Ngong Racecourse, a horse track on the outskirts of Nairobi, featured as the main performer, The Country Man, Nigerian country singer Ochiora Okogeri. Country has long been played on radio stations across the continent and has drawn increasing interest from local artists over the years. It is particularly popular among Afrikaners in South Africa, where artists like Bobby Angel and Lance James first became stars.
Many in attendance found a link to their community or people. Purity Melubo, for instance, is Maasi and says her people are essentially "cowboy" as they have cows and ranches, but "we don’t wear hats and boots and leather jackets.” Country is particularly popular among the Kikuyu, Kenya’s most populous ethnic group. Some say Mugithi, a folk genre in the Kikuyu community that features a lone singing guitarist, is similar to country. At the festival, Ythera the Wildflower sang a rendition of Dolly Parton’s “Coat of Many Colors” in her native Kikuyu language. “Kikuyu renditions bring country music closer to home and our language gets to be appreciated internationally,” she said.
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SMALLEST COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD IN SQUARE MILES
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- Vatican City, Europe, 0.19 square miles
- Monaco, Europe, 0.77
- Nauru, Oceania, 8.1
- Tuvalu, Oceania, 10.0
- San Marino, Europe, 23.5
- Liechtenstein, Europe, 61.7
- Marshall Islands, Oceania, 31.2
- Saint Kitts and Nevis, Caribbean, 100.7
- Maldives, Asia, 115.8
- Malta, Europe, 122
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MARKET UPDATE - 08/19/2026 Close
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(Courtesy of Alpine Bank Wealth Management*)
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Canadian dollar (per U.S. dollar)
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Mexican peso (per U.S. dollar)
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30-year fixed mortgage rate (Freddie Mac 08/13/2026)
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*Not FDIC insured. May lose value. Not guaranteed by the bank.
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Alpine Bank is an independent, employee-owned organization with headquarters in Glenwood Springs and banking offices across Colorado's Western Slope, mountains and Front Range. Alpine Bank serves customers with retail, business, wealth management*, mortgage and electronic banking services. Learn more at alpinebank.com.
*Alpine Bank Wealth Management services are not FDIC insured, may lose value and are not guaranteed by the bank.
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