Housing News Digest, June 30

Company wants to drill for oil and gas on Banning Lewis Ranch
A Houston exploration and production company says it intends to drill for oil and gas on the sprawling Banning Lewis Ranch on Colorado Springs’ east side if its bid to purchase the lion’s share of the property is approved by a bankruptcy court judge.

Ultra Resources, a subsidiary of Ultra Petroleum, emerged Wednesday as one of two winning bidders in an auction this week of the 21,500-acre ranch, whose owners filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last year in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. Ultra is seeking to buy the undeveloped 18,000 acres of the ranch, which is bounded by Woodmen, Marksheffel and Meridian roads and Fontaine Boulevard.

McKinstry, Kaplan Joining Otten Johnson As Associates
Michael “Ty” McKinstry and Michael E. Kaplan have joined Otten Johnson Robinson Neff + Ragonetti PC as associates.
McKinstry, who has a juris doctor from the University of Colorado, will focus on real estate and land use matters, and assist clients in the industrial, office, retail and finance industries.

Denver No. 6 in Case-Shiller
The Denver area housing market showed an overall drop of 4.1 percent in April from April 2010, but that was good enough for sixth place in the 20 metropolitan statistical areas covered by the closely watched and influential S&P;/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices released today.

And on a month-to-month basis, Denver home prices rose 1.5 percent in April from March, good enough for fifth place. Only Washington, D.C., gaining 3 percent, performed dramatically better than Denver from March to April San Francisco rose by 1.7 percent and Seattle and Atlanta each gained 1.6 percent.

UDR sets record with $104M D.C. apartment buy
UDR Inc. has closed on a $104 million buy of an apartment complex in Washington, D.C., shattering the record for the highest price per square foot ever achieved in the D.C. region for Class A rental product.

Longmont won't wait to collect fees
The Longmont City Council won’t allow homebuilders to put off paying impact fees until after a home is occupied, the Longmont Times-Call reports.