As we approach the fifth anniversary of the Marshall Fire, I wanted to give everyone a look at the progress of the sales of lots where homes were lost. These figures were pulled on Oct. 15th, 2026. The Blue links will take you to the recovery websites for each area for further info.
When I pulled this data, 911 homes across all three areas had received their Certificates of Occupancy, 82.8% of the number of homes lost in the fire. Just over 32% of the remaining homes lost have applied for permits, meaning 88.36% of the homes lost have been rebuilt or are in-process, which is amazing progress although that means there are 128 lots/families/people still in limbo. On recent dog walks around Louisville and nearby Boulder County, I’ve also noticed some homes that appear stuck. Either nothing has ever happened and the homes appear fire damaged and abandoned or a handful of homes that have started a rebuild and the construction appears to stopped, showing no apparent progress going on for 6 months or longer. Rebuilding is tough!
As far as the overall Boulder County market, the percentage of the Homes Under Contract (Single-Family and Attached) is still dropping the last week of October, now down to only 17.52% under contract. We haven’t seen percentages that low since the early 2000’s. Small bright point, the summer seasonal peak in percentage under contract rose above last year’s number, but that could be an artifact of the inclusion of RECO data this year. With AI concerns, the mid-term election results, high mortgage rates, economic headwinds, etc., it’s hard to say where this chart will be going next.
Hope everyone had a good Halloween!