Buying
Answer Brief
Who Pays to Repave Subdivision Roads in Boulder County?
Boulder County plows and patches the subdivision streets it maintains but resurfaces only a short list. Owners pay for the rest, usually through a district they vote in, so on most county-side Gunbarrel parcels the road is already a tax-bill line or a cost no district has been voted to cover.
POV Note
What a 'Balanced' Housing Market Actually Measures
The buyer's-or-seller's label comes from months of supply, which measures how quickly today's listings would sell, not prices. Through August 2026, Boulder, Longmont and Loveland all tightened on supply and none of their year-to-date medians rose. Read speed off supply and price off the solds.
Buyer Guide
Counting ADU Rent to Qualify for a Mortgage in Colorado
An accessory unit helps you qualify from the monthly rent the appraisal supports. On a Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or FHA purchase, at most 75% of it counts, capped at 30% of qualifying income, if the unit passes each program's test. Above the conforming limit, the lender's rules replace all three.
Answer Brief
Is There an Attorney Review Period in Colorado?
A buyer used to handing a signed contract to a lawyer for approval will find no such step in Colorado's standard residential contract. It binds once both sides sign and acceptance is delivered, and a banner on its first page says to get legal advice before signing. Here's where a lawyer fits.
Answer Brief
Boulder All-Electric Remodel Requirement: What Triggers It
Size alone doesn't trigger the City of Boulder's all-electric remodel rule. It takes three things at once: work on over half the floor area, half the envelope altered, and heating, cooling or water-heating equipment replaced. Replace none of it in existing living space and the rule doesn't apply.
POV Note
Rent to Answer Your Own Question, Not to Wait Out the Market
Most advice on renting first hands you a number of months. The right length is the time one question about your own situation takes to answer: whether the job holds, which blocks you'd live on, whether a second earner's job lands. After that, renting without shopping is a bet on rates and prices.
Buyer Guide
Mortgage Rate Went Up While Under Contract in Colorado
On Colorado's current contract, a higher rate on its own can end the deal only on or before the New Loan Terms Deadline, if your contract dates that row. The contract never mentions a rate lock and never holds the rate: only your lender's lock does, and it has to reach the Closing Date.
Answer Brief
How Big Can You Build? Boulder County's Home Size Limit
Since May 13, 2025, most of unincorporated Boulder County caps a house at the larger of its neighborhood's median floor area or its 2025 size plus an allowance for houses up to 3,500 square feet. Basements, garages and shops count, and the listing's square footage isn't the county's number.
Answer Brief
Closing on a Colorado Home From Out of State
Colorado law is not what forbids closing on a house you cannot fly to. Remote notarization works only on a document that was never paper, your county decides whether to record it, and on a conforming loan a power of attorney is your lender's fallback. The mail-away is the route with fewest gates.