We’d be delighted to see fall come around. Don’t get us wrong – we love the lush green and warm days, but it’d be nice to water the lawn and run the air conditioning less. (And yes, we’re big fans of hot cocoa by the fire, too.) As we see the last lazy days of summer come to a close, stats released this week on the U.S. housing market show a 1.5% increase in median home values. Nationwide, the median home price is up to $176,900. While we can’t all be like Akron, Ohio (they showed a 36% increase in median home value), we can look in our own backyards and do what we can to ensure the stabilization of home prices.

It can be as simple as organizing a neighborhood or block clean-up. Everyone chips in for paint costs and you start at one end of the block and end up at the other. You can share yard equipment, supplies and your time with one another to make sure that curb appeal for your neighborhood remains high. You might not have the skills to fix that broken front porch lantern, but we’ll bet one of your neighbors does! Think about how you and your neighbors can spend one day together to make your neighborhood (or block) a beautiful place to live. Offer to trim your neighbor’s trees if they’ll fix that pesky porch light.

And when you’re done with the hard work, you can check out our weekly events calendar for Ouray, Telluride, Montrose and Ridgway. There’s always something going on here and we’ll bet there is in your neck of the woods, too!

The Staff at San Juan Realty, Inc.