Real Estate in Boulder: Sold numbers in May/June of 2014 & June 2013

Here are the MLS statistics for detached homes sold in Boulder during the noted months.This is just raw data, but we can ask questions and come to conclusions if we dig deeper.  Some houses went under contract right away, and some took longer.

Take a look at houses sold vs average and median prices. 

Call me if you have questions!  I can get this kind of information with greater detail for any area in Boulder County!  303-819-8895

June  2013:
101  houses sold, ranging from $326,500 to $3,150,000.
Average was $736,491 and Median was $650,000. Average days on market was 57 and houses sold for 98% of their last list price.

May 2014:
64  houses sold, ranging from $350,000 to $2,597,000.
Average was $842,896, and Median was $751,000. Average days on market was 89, and houses sold for 98% of their last listing price.

June 2014:
84  houses sold, ranging from $350,000 to $2,830,000.
Average was $816,597 and Median was $726,417. Average days on market was 61 and houses sold for 99% of their last list price.

All Quiet on the Western Front: Two editions

When we had Aion Bookshop on the Hill, one of our employees was reading All Quiet on the Western Front for a class, and since I had just finished it, we compared mental notes.  He asked what I had thought about the hospital scene in which the soldier's buddies kept an eye out for the nurse while he made love with his wife.  I said I didn't remember, but that I would look again.  Never found it. And here is why.

We know him as Erich Maria Remarque, but he was born in 1898 and named Erich Paul Remark.  Drafted into the army in November 1916, he was transferred to the western front on June 12 of the following year, where he was wounded on the last day of July during the "Battle of Flanders."  Given our knowledge of the fatality rates during The Great War, that probably saved his life.  After the war he did various things, about which you can read in the Wikipedia article.

He wrote Im Westen nichts Neues in 1927, and it was serialized in the Vossische Zeitung from November 10 through December 9, 1928.  A daring work, it made friends and enemies everywhere in Germany, but no doubt increased public demand for the subsequent book edition.  Here are the numbers:  the first trade edition of 30,000 copies, printed on January 19, 1929, led to a 2nd of 20,000 on February 12, and a 3rd on the 14th.  And demand didn't stop; 931,237 copies were printed by the end of 1929, and a million by June 1930.  There was even a Braille edition in 2 volumes, with about 1300 copies.  The German publisher, Propyläen Verlag, had to contract with six printing companies and  ten binderies.  They needed sixteen looms for the fabric that covered the boards.  And that was just in Germany!  By November 1929, the translation by A.W. Wheen sold 300,000 copies in the English edition, and 215,000 in the United States.

I found two copies in English (one from England and the other from the U.S.) earlier this year, both printed in 1929.  The English printing is the 17th, from July (the first printing was in March). The American printing is the first, from June.  The same person owned both, and penciled in his name and the year of acquisition, 1929.  He also penciled in notes, and many of them, because of differences between the two editions.  What were the differences?  The American version was expurgated.  No doubt because of censorship laws of the time, since the publisher was planning on a book club edition and didn't want to get in trouble with the U.S. Postal Service.  I have known this for some time, but I didn't realize how quickly the complete version was published America; Grosset & Dunlap published the uncensored version a year later, in 1930.

I will be selling the American and English editions-not the German one-as a set:  $40.00 at our bookshop in the Lafayette Flea Market (it is open every day).  Call me if you have questions:  303-819-8895

Thanks,

Jim Broaddus

April 14, 2014: House prices in Boulder

Houses - prices asked and prices realized as of today

As of April 14, there are 132 active (not under contract) house listings in Boulder.

Prices range from $369,900 to $5,450,000, with an average of  $1,280,348 and a median of $1,024,500. Average total days on market was 87.

Actual sales since March 14 are different:  from $388,000 to $3,300,000, their average is $850,860 and their median is $650,000.  Average total days on market was also 87.

The photo above is from Chautauqua Park

The Art in Photography: Wednesday's Daily Camera Article on the Caucuses

If you are a student-anywhere from serious to recreational-of history, you know that information can be extracted from documents that their creators had no intention of discussing.  They as well as we can't help it; If you describe a scene at the coffee shop with a particular story or idea in mind, the more detail you provide of the setting and the people, the more that someone else can learn.  Internal evidence can tell you a lot, if you use your eyes and ask questions.

Here is an example from today's Daily Camera on the caucuses last night in Boulder and Longmont.  Look at the paper, and you'll see right away the big photo of some participants in the Democratic caucus at Foothill Elementary.  Let me describe it:  four people lined up at tables,  holding pieces of paper aloft, in their right hands.  Two are smiling, and the other two are certainly not in a bad mood.  They are young-even the man on the right is-all attractive, and engaged.  Notice the point of view of the photographer, which is the same as ours.  She was down low, looking up at the subjects.  Practically Heroic, they are looking up and out, saluting with their votes.   If you are looking at a picture, scale is important because you relate to its size.  Larger images command greater attention and respect, especially if you are looking up at the subject.  In this case as well, the photo was placed above the fold, so that the subjects' heads, shoulders and raised arms are visible and draw in the viewer, or reader.  I think the photographer did well, giving us a modern photo version of something by Norman Rockwell.

The article is actually below the fold, and is illustrated by a photo from the Republican caucus in Longmont.  What a difference!  Compare the scale, point of view, and participants!  Smaller photo, looking down at-and probably on-the subjects, and I don't know if there were any younger people up there, but from this photo you just can't tell.  

The photos were taken by different people, and I don't know if photos are picked carefully, but if I were a lazy historian, I would be making  some conclusions about Boulder and Longmont: 
Boulder = young, attractive, intelligent, happy democrats.  Longmont = old, lonely, obsolete republicans.  At least they weren't fat, eating donuts and smoking!  And I would be making conclusions about the Camera's attitude as well.

February 24, 2014: The Fate of Hannelore's older brother

Almost two years ago I bought some books at the Longmont Public Library's bag day, and wrote about them on my website, which you might want to read before what follows here.

I tracked down Hannelore's son, sent him an inquiry, and he kindly called to answer my questions, which concerned Hannelore's older brother Jürgen Röber.  I had suspected that he hadn't made it through the war, and he hadn't.  He was born in 1922, so he got the book for Christmas in his tenth or eleventh year.  But he served in the military, and died in 1944 by sniper fire on the Eastern Front, which at that time was in Poland.  So sad.

July 1: College Inn demolished last week

I asked William Arndt about the College Inn some time ago, and he responded with what I think is the correct information-I can't recall for sure, because I lost his note.  But this is more or less correct:  built in 1964 as a private residence hall by College Inns of America, it had a Denver architect, and was thoroughly of its time; lots of glass, and the divisions between the floors are obvious because of the cantilevered porch extensions of the floor plates.

Like other buildings of the time it was an asbestos mine, and mitigation would have been difficult.  Add to that the cost of bringing the rest of the building up to code, and you can see why they decided on tearing it down.  

Still, it had good lines, and unlike the recent buildings along Canyon, it was quite sleek.  I was suspecting that James Hunter designed it and was surprised that it wasn't.

Please correct me on the information I provided, or send a comment if you have a story of your own about the College Inn or anything else related to architecture in Boulder, on-campus or off.

No one else read them, and you don't have to, either

June 19, 2013

Some books get read, but many don't; when I had a set of Herbert Spencer for sale, I noted that it was probably bound in the early 20th century, and never read through about 4 generations of the family that owned it.  How do I know?  It was printed in octavo (Wikipedia explains this better than I) which means that each sheet of paper that gets run through the press has 8 pages on a side (so 16 when you count both sides).  You fold the sheet 3 times the right way, then get a bunch of them-they are called "gatherings" or "signatures"-together and sew them up into a text block which then gets bound.  Here is the thing about folding up that big sheet:  when you have done that, and you can try it yourself, you end up with two folds that need to be cut, or "opened," on the fore edge of the last 4 sheets of each gathering.  In this set of 18 volumes (I only had 17), not a single gathering had the fore edges opened.  So the first owner had it for the right reason. The books looked good on the shelf.  You didn't need or want to read them; they were there for decoration.  O.K. by me; there is a good market for fine bindings, and you can poke around ABE or other sites and find sets with high prices.

There are other ways to use books, and I try to collect examples.  Here are a couple from a catalogue of women's clothing and accessories, and I couldn't resist.  It used to be that sex sells, but in this case it's the books that sell the other stuff.  Incidentally, you might recognize the book under the shoe.  Peter Bamm was the pen name for Curt Emmrich, a German physician and journalist who served as a surgeon on the Russian front in World War II.  I have a copy at home; Die Unsichtbare Flagge took about 3 readings because of my mediocre German comprehension. Don't worry; it improved as I persevered.

This photo is from the same catalogue, and it looks good.  I hope they sold some shoes and dresses.  Ah!  There it is; Fossil!  Don't you like the horizontals of the books setting off the legs?  What would you rather look at? Not the books, that's for sure.  Now to get out of the corner into which I have painted myself.  Books that look good, or books that make other things look good?  I guess you can do anything you want with them.  Just go out and buy some.  Books, I mean.