Arapahoe County recently featured an article in its newsletter about organizing a neighborhood watch group. Regardless if you live in a high crime neighborhood or not, we feel this is such an important thing for your neighborhood to do, since it not only makes your community safer, but it bonds your neighbors together by promoting a safer place to live

According to Arapahoe County, a neighborhood watch group consists of Sherriff’s office personnel and citizens who work together to “improve the quality of life in local neighborhoods,” consisting of “citizens addressing issues that concern the entire community.”

Here are a few suggestions from the newsletter to get a neighborhood watch group started in your community:

• Plan your first one-hour business meeting for a weeknight. An Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office Crime Prevention Deputy will attend your first meeting to help train members. The agenda will include: in-home security tips, reporting skills and information on local crime patterns.
• Select a group coordinator and block captains who will be responsible for organizing future meetings and communicating with the group on a regular basis.
• Recruit new members, including new neighbors and pay close attention to the elderly. After you have achieved 75 percent enrollment, you can start posting neighborhood watch signs.
• You can also make the group more social by hosting neighborhood events throughout the year. Consider celebrating National Night Out, which is held every August.

 For tips on organizing a neighborhod watch group, please contact TeamCox Realtors – Denver real estate specialists – at 303-400-6060.

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Several years ago, TeamCox Realtors - Denver real estate specialists - made the commitment to train with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s department in the federally-funded CERT  program. We highly recommend this program to any citizens of Arapahoe County who want to learn vital ifesaving skills, or who wish to freshen up their existing skills.  It is a commitment, consisting of 32 hours and several weekends. 

We are so grateful to Arapahoe County and to the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s department for making this program available to its residents.  Here is information on the course, along with the upcoming schedule:
 
The CERT course is a 32 hour commitment. It is taught in the community by a trained team of first responders, who have completed a CERT Train-the-Trainer course conducted by their state Office of Emergency Management or FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute (EMI). CERT training includes disaster preparedness, disaster fire suppression, basic disaster medical operations, and light search and rescue operations. CERT members respond after a disaster by:

• Locating and turning off utilities
• Extinguishing small fires
• Treating life threatening injuries until professional assistance can be obtained
• Conducting light search and rescue operations  
• Helping disaster survivors cope with emotional stress.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 CERT is a 32 hour course given at no charge.. We welcome your participation. The class is limited to 30 participants. Register early to secure your enrollment.

Class Training Schedule
March 5 8:00AM-4:00PM
March 12 8:00AM-4:00PM
March 26 8:00AM-4:00PM
April 2 8:00AM-4:00PM

Classes will be held at:
2255 W. Berry Ave.
Littleton, CO 80120

Contact Cassandra Stelter at
720-874-4186 or cstelter@co.arapahoe.co.us to guarantee your reservation.

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The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s department regularly sends out a very useful Citizen Advisory notice via email, whenever they have important or usefulinformation. The alert can range from a picture of a suspect to an actual police report to a message concerning public safety.

Since TeamCox works with a significant number of seniors in our marketplace, we thought that the report we just received might be useful to our senior readers. As with everything, TeamCox Realtors – your Denver real estate specialists – would like for you to stay alert and keep safe!

http://www.co.arapahoe.co.us/citizeninfo/EWtelephone.pdf http://www.co.arapahoe.co.us/Apps/selectalert/login.aspx

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Good news for The City of Centennial, which received its annual share of the Arapahoe County Open Space Tax Fund last week – an award of $1.987 million to fund its many new projects in its master plan of providing its residents with quality parks, trails and open space.

The City of Centennial created a citizen’s Open Space Advisory Board to help it determine which projects to pursue. It also partners with the South Suburban Parks and Recreation District and the Arapahoe Park and Recreation District to fund infrastructure improvements.

This just reinforces Centennial’s reputation of a great place to live with endless recreational opportunities. For more information regarding life in Centennial, or regarding on Centennial real estate, please contact TeamCox Realtors at 303-400-6060.

Streets of SouthGlenn Update

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There aren’t many suburbs that rival the beauty and the exclusivity of Cherry Hills Village. Ideally situated on the western edge of Arapahoe County, Cherry Hills Village dates back to post World War II, when metro Denver’s housing demand was spreading to the south. Founded in 1945, Cherry Hills Village was conceptualized with the vision of large lots in a countrified atmosphere. 

Cherry Hills Village was created with the goal of maintaining large residential lots in a private country like atmosphere. Today, most Cherry Hills Village homes are situated on one to ten acre lots that are perfect for accommodating luxurious single-family homes and estate properties. Throughout the years, distinctive upper-end custom home subdivisions were developed including Glenmoor, Cherry Hills Farm, Devonshire, Buell Mansion, Covington and Charlou. Today, these subdivisions are home to some of the most magnificent luxury custom homes in Colorado that many local celebrity-types call home.

Limited commercial zoning is enforced in Cherry Hills Village to preserve the city’s rural atmosphere that features expansive open space and picturesque residential sites. The prestigious Cherry Hills address covers a mere 6.5 square miles and boasts average sales price of approximately two million dollars. Cherry Hills Village real estate ranges in price from $350 to $400 per square foot.

Strategically located adjacent to Greenwood Village and the Denver Tech Center, Cherry Hills Village is only a 15 minute drive to downtown Denver and 10 minutes to the Cherry Creek Chopping Center. For running and biking enthusiasts, Cherry Hills Village boasts an extensive trail system and is close to the Highline Canal bike path. The renowned Cherry Hills Country Club and the Glenmoor Country Club, both within city limits, offers residents many elite golfing and social opportunities.

Cherry Hills Village Elementary, West Middle School and Cherry Creek High Schools, all highly regarded schools within the award-winning Cherry Creek Schools, serve the Cherry Hills Village community. For private education, Kent Country Day School and St Mary’s Academy are also located within the perimeters of Cherry Hills Village.

If you have questions about Cherry Hills Village or regarding tthe general Denver real estate market, please feel free to call a TeamCox member at 303-400-6060.   

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While traveling along the Denver area’s E-470 tollway used to be rather lackluster, the development of Arapahoe County’s Southlands area has changed the southeastern Aurora landscape for the better. Southlands, which has 1.7 million sq. ft. of shopping and dining space, is a fashionable area nestled along E-470 on Smoky Hill Road. The outdoor mall’s last phase opened in October of 2006. While residents of the Southeastern Aurora communities of Piney Creek and Tallyn’s Reach likely include Southlands in their regular shopping routines, the area is one Denver’s best-kept secrets.

Southlands features an architecturally charming four block main street and community plaza that is reminiscent of trendy urban areas like Bel Mar and Larimer Square. The main area is surrounded by almost every store and restaurant that you can name including P.F. Changes, JC Penney, Babies R Us, Home Depot, On The Border, etc.

Southlands isn’t all about shopping. There are many family-friendly events throughout the year including a summer farmer’s market that runs from May through October and a variety of events during the holiday season. The first annual Southlands 5K Race and Family Run/Walk is coming up on September 15^th. The 5K Race begins at 8 am and the Family Run/Walk starts at 8:30 am.

As the Southlands area continues to grow, real estate in surrounding communities including Tallyn’s Reach will only appreciate. Homebuyers are always attracted to communities that are not only close to conveniences but also nearby more distinctive shopping and dining establishments. The Southlands area is also in the heart of the coveted Cherry Creek School District, which further adds to the area’s overall appeal. The Southlands area takes typical suburban development to a whole new level.

For more information on the Southlands area or other southeastern Aurora communities, please contact TeamCox Realtors.

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Denver and many surrounding suburbs are becoming safer places to live. According to the 2006 Denver Neighborhood Crime Report, overall crime in the City of Denver declined 10% between 2005 and 2006. In addition, some of the Denver suburbs are seeing decreases in crime rates.

• Overall, there were approximately 46,000 reported crimes in Denver, which averages out to around 43 crimes per 1,000 residents.

   

• Bear Valley, Kennedy and Washington Park were among the Denver neighborhoods that saw the biggest decrease in crimes from 2005 to 2006. Washington Park saw a 31% decrease in crimes during the period including a 31 % decrease in the number of burglaries and auto thefts. A few Denver neighborhoods did not fare well in the report including Sun Valley, Five Points and City Park. These neighborhoods posted the largest crime rates per 1,000 residents in Denver.

   

• Douglas County continues to be a very safe place to live. YourHub.com reports that Douglas County saw a 14% decrease in violent crimes during the first half of 2007 compared to the same period last year. This conclusion is based on statistics from the Castle Rock Police, Lone Tree Police, Parker Police and the Douglas County Sheriff’s office. Both Castle Rock and Parker have seen slight reductions in violent crimes this year.

   

• In late 2005, the 12th Annual Safest Cities Award recognized Centennial, located in Arapahoe County, as the 25^th safest American city.

   

Low crime rates mean only good things for the local real estate market. For more information on specific crime rates or other safety issues in your Denver area neighborhood, please contact TeamCox Realtors.

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The number of foreclosures in the seven county Denver area rose 25% from the first two quarters of 2006 to a grand total of more than 12,000 homes. Due to the sheer numbers and a huge manpower backlog, this phenomena is going to continue for the next several years. The Rocky Mountain News reported on June 12, 2007 that Public Trustees in Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson counties opened 12,074 forecloseures compared to 9,665 during the first six months of 2006. 

Builders, who have been left with quite a bit of inventory as a result of homes that were under contract and did not close, are often willing to make substantial concessions to get those homes back under contract and closed. TeamCox has recently been successful in placing several families into these newly built homes. It is really lucky when a builder has standing or nearly completed inventory that is exactly what our buyers were looking for! 

For relocating buyers thinking that they can come into the more affluent suburban neighborhoods and pick up a distressed sale, this is simply not the case. The choices will be very limited since most of the distressed foreclosed or pre-foreclosure homes are located in less than prime locations. While these homes can be appealing to the investor that wishes to pick up rental property or buyers with the inclination and talent to refurbish a home, many of these homes are totally destroyed by the homeowner on the way out the door. These homes are not for the faint of heart to purchase since they usually require both physical stamina and a pockebook that is up to the task!

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