Lake Creek

If you ask a local where they would live—if they could live anywhere in the valley, particularly if money were no object—and you’ll likely get the same answer from many of them: Lake Creek. Located just off of Highway 6 a few minutes outside of Edwards’ lively town center and accessed from West Lake Creek Road, this rural enclave, says Engel & Völkers managing broker Josh Lautenberg, “really epitomizes what life in Colorado should be like.”

With many-acre lots offering uncompromised views of New York Mountain, Lake Creek Valley, the Sawatch Range, the available homes, rolling pastures, and horse ranches are, in a word, paradise.

Stats
Number of active listings (at press time): 10
Active median home price: $3.79 million
Number of homes sold in 2016: 1
Median price of homes sold here in 2016: $5.5 million
Average number of days on the market: 585

Cordillera

Once an exclusive 7,000-acre enclave that catered to the rich and (in)famous (e.g., Kobe Bryant), Cordillera lost its luster when ugly headlines and then uglier litigation involving the country club dragged on. And on. After years of struggles, Troon assumed management of the 450-member golf club in January 2013, and since then Cordillera has undergone a renaissance.

“I believe in it, I love it, and I live it,” says Cordillera resident Barbara Scrivens, a broker with LIV Sotheby's International Realty, who appreciates the fact that locals and families with kids make up a good portion of her neighborhood, the 130-lot Cordillera Valley Club (one of four gated enclaves including the Divide, the Ranch, and the Summit).

Longtime locals and transplants from Texas and Oklahoma have been snapping up homes and lots at a quickening pace thanks to amenities like four golf courses (by Fazio, Irwin, Nicklaus, and Pelz), five restaurants, two pools, stables, and a rambling lodge and relaxing spa where any whiff of scandal has long since been replaced by the scent of sandalwood.

Stats
Number of active listings (at press time): 79
Active median home price: $2.45 million
Number of homes sold in 2016: 10
Median price of homes sold here in 2016:
$1.63 million
Average number of days on the market: 297