On Saturday, interested home shoppers can tour a 4-bedroom semi-custom home in Denver’s University Hills area that might cost a million dollars more if it were located just a few blocks west of where it is, closer to Observatory Park.

Colorado Boulevard divides University Hills from University Park, the area between Colorado and the University of Denver. On the Hills side of that line, custom builder Tom Sattler — known for show homes in premium areas like The Preserve at Greenwood Village — did a one-off enclave in 2018 called Dickenson Place. It’s just six homes, all of them new-urban styled on low-maintenance lots.

Mid-mod

But each of them individually shows a distinctly different elevation — some leaning more Colorado contemporary, some more mid-mod. In a year just coming out of the recession, it was very successful, Sattler recalls now.

“If I could find another site like that, I’d do it in a heartbeat,” he said.

The project had come on the market in the $900K range then; and just two years later, one of the six had sold for $1.65 million. Realtor Rob Kishbaugh with Compass will show home shoppers one on the market now, more mid-mod styled, on a corner lot, priced at $1.5 million.

“If it was on other side of Colorado closer to Observatory Park, it would be closer to $2.8 to $3 million,” said Kishbaugh. Sattler agrees, and a Zillow search shows relatively little on the market in either area now, with newer homes listed in University Park spanning $2.1 million to north of $5 million.

Show home quality

At 4,007 square feet finished, this looks more like a new show home than a resale, with the bright-light look that is heavily preferred now — plenty of natural lighting — along with numbers of upgrades that the seller optioned for when it was under construction.

Visitors will see white oak floors, a roomy kitchen with KitchenAid appliances and a vast quartz island, a nice primary suite with a California closet system, and 9-foot ceilings throughout, including in the basement with a guest bedroom and big entertaining space. The private, Xeriscaped backyard is manageably sized and shows a covered deck area, a built-in firepit, and a small turf area scaled for a goldendoodle. There’s a 3-car tandem garage.

The price is as low as it is because like many agents who brought homes on the market this summer, Kishbaugh just reduced it by $100,000. He notes that showings last month were few but drew lots of compliments, and his open houses have had good traffic, a sign that buyers coming out of the summer doldrums have been waiting for things to get better.

Walk-to dining

“Buyers are feeling more comfortable; I’m working with more people,” Kishbaugh said. He adds that although he hears concerns about getting the timing right on interest rates, people need to move for other reasons, too. “Our inventory (of homes) was so short during COVID, we had only two weeks of supply. A normal market is five or six months,” he said.

Kishbaugh adds that although University Park and University Hills share University Park Elementary School, the latter area has its own advantages: a quiet, bungalow feel, along with Denver Academy, a choice of grocery shopping, and Poppies — a restaurant-bar a block away with a classic lounge atmosphere, among lots of walk-to dining nearby.

ABOUT THIS HOME:

WHERE: 4274 E. Dickenson Place, Denver. From I-25 take Yale Avenue exit, turn west on East Yale 1 mile to S. Colorado Boulevard, turn right (north) one long block to East Dickenson Place, turn right, one long block.

SIZE: 4 bedrooms, 5 baths, 4,007 sq. ft. 

PRICE: $1.5 million 

WEB: Compass.com

OPEN HOUSE: Saturday, Sept. 20, noon-2 p.m.; or call Rob Kishbaugh, 303-668-9052