While nearly every place in the country reels from decreased housing values, there are still a few markets where housing prices not only didn't fall from 2008 to 2009, but actually rose. At the top of this enviable list is Boulder, CO! With an annual increase in the median housing price of 2.12%, Boulder is bucking the national real estate trend with over 60% of homes increasing in value over the past year.A similarity among many cities in Business Week's list was the presence of either a major university or a military base. Boulder, of course, is home the the University of Colorado's main campus and its nearly 30,000 students plus thousands of university employees (as a related aside, CU Boulder was just named the nation's "Greenest University" by the Sierra Club's "Sierra" magazine). Other factors pushing Boulder to the top included the 50,000 acres of green space surrounding the city which limits development and sprawl, as well as the fact that the "area is so pretty" which keeps demand for housing up.
The only minor inaccuracy in Business Week's article was that Boulder was referred to as an "affluent Denver suburb." Affluent? Yeah, sure, won't argue with that. Denver suburb? Hardly; it's 35 miles away from Denver and surrounded by those now-famous 50,00 acres of green space. All the same, this is all good news for anybody living, working or building in Boulder.
