Buying a Historic Denver Home: Landmark Rules, Dos and Don'ts

A historic Denver home is a house inside one of the city's designated historic districts or a house designated as an individual Denver landmark. Buying one means the exterior belongs to the Denver Landmark Preservation Commission as much as it belongs to the owner: every visible exterior change needs a Certificate of Appropriateness before the city issues a building permit. This guide covers what the districts restrict, the Colorado tax credit, insurance, lead paint and asbestos, and a dos-and-don'ts list for the first-time buyer of a Denver heritage home.

What counts as a historic home in Denver

Denver has two kinds of protection. A historic district is a whole set of blocks the City Council designated for its architecture and history; every structure inside it is reviewed, including the plain ones. An individual landmark is one building designated on its own. Both appear on the city's designated historic district map, and the listing's zoning line on the Denver property record shows the overlay.

Age alone is not designation. A 1905 Denver Square in Congress Park is old; a 1905 Denver Square in the Wyman district is regulated. Check the address with Denver Landmark Preservation before writing an offer; the answer sets the budget for every exterior project you will ever do.

Which Denver neighborhoods are landmark districts

• Baker: Queen Anne cottages and Victorian rowhouses from the 1880s to 1910s, south of downtown along Broadway.
• Curtis Park: Denver's oldest residential district, 1870s and 1880s Italianate and Queen Anne homes in Five Points.
• Wyman and Capitol Hill districts: Denver Squares and brick mansions built for the mining and railroad money of the 1890s and 1900s.
• Potter Highlands: Brick Victorians and early bungalows in the Highlands, north of the river.
• Country Club: 1900s to 1930s estate homes on large lots east of Cherry Creek.
• Others: Alamo Placita, Humboldt Street, Quality Hill, Swallow Hill, Lower Downtown and dozens more; the city map is the source.

Browse the Baker area guide, the Five Points area guide for Curtis Park and the Capitol Hill area guide, then search the live listings on homes for sale in Denver.

What a Denver historic district restricts

The district regulates the exterior visible from the street and alley. It does not regulate the interior. You are free to remodel the kitchen, open a wall, finish the basement or move a bathroom with a standard building permit. The city's Landmark Design Review program reviews the following:

• Windows and doors: replacing original wood windows with vinyl on a street-facing wall is denied in most districts; repair or a matching wood or clad-wood window is approved.
• Roofing and porches: material, pitch and porch details are reviewed; asphalt shingles are approved on most homes that already have them.
• Additions and ADUs: allowed, and reviewed for scale, placement and materials; a rear addition set back from the front wall passes far more easily than a front one.
• Demolition: tearing down a contributing structure in a district is denied except for structural loss; the city also reviews demolition of older non-designated buildings citywide for landmark eligibility.
• Solar panels: approved when placed on rear or side roof planes not visible from the street.
• Paint color: not regulated in Denver districts.

For the zoning side of an addition or a carriage house, read the Denver ADU, zoning and historic district guide.

What a Certificate of Appropriateness is and how long it takes

A Certificate of Appropriateness (COA) is the written approval from Landmark Preservation that a planned exterior change meets the district's design guidelines. The building permit office will not issue a permit for exterior work on a designated property without it. Start by applying for design review online with drawings, photos and product specifications.

Routine work (in-kind roof replacement, window repair, rear fences) is approved by staff without a hearing. Additions, new garages and demolition go to the Landmark Preservation Commission at a public meeting. Allow a month or more for anything that needs the Commission, and never sign a contractor's start date before the COA is in hand.

The Colorado historic preservation tax credit

Colorado offers a state income tax credit for qualified rehabilitation of a designated historic property, including owner-occupied homes that are designated as a local landmark, listed on the Colorado State Register or listed on the National Register. The program is described on the state's Historic Preservation Tax Credit page; History Colorado administers the residential side. The work must be approved before it starts and must follow the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation, and the credit has a per-property cap and a minimum spend. Confirm the current percentage and cap with History Colorado and a Colorado CPA before counting on it, because the legislature adjusts the program.

Routine maintenance such as painting does not qualify. Window restoration, masonry repointing, roof structure and porch reconstruction are the projects our buyers have used it for.

Does designation raise or lower the value

It protects it. A district owner knows the house across the street will not become a scrape-and-build, and Denver's designated blocks in Baker, Wyman and Country Club hold price per square foot above the surrounding non-designated blocks. The cost is on the other side of the ledger: exterior work runs 20% to 40% more than on a non-designated house because the materials are wood, brick, slate and copper instead of vinyl and aluminum.

What it costs to insure a historic Denver home

Insurers underwrite a 1900 brick home on four questions: the electrical panel, the wiring, the plumbing and the roof. A home with a Federal Pacific or Zinsco panel, active knob-and-tube wiring or galvanized supply pipe is declined or surcharged by most Colorado carriers until the item is replaced. Hail is the other factor; a wood-shingle or slate roof carries a higher premium than asphalt after the May to September hail season.

Ask for a policy with ordinance or law coverage and extended replacement cost. Standard replacement cost rebuilds with modern materials; a district house has to be rebuilt to district standards, and the gap is the owner's without those two endorsements. Get the quote during the inspection period. The Denver home insurance costs post covers what is driving premiums.

Lead paint and asbestos: the rules in Colorado

Lead paint. Every home built before 1978 comes with a federal lead-based paint disclosure and a pamphlet, and the buyer has the right to a 10-day lead inspection period written into the Colorado contract. A 1905 Denver home has lead paint under the newer layers on its trim, windows and porch. Any contractor who disturbs painted surfaces in a pre-1978 home must be EPA RRP certified. A lead inspection with an XRF analyzer costs $300 to $600.

Asbestos. Colorado's Department of Public Health and Environment regulates asbestos, and Colorado requires an asbestos inspection by a state-certified building inspector before renovation or demolition that disturbs more than the residential trigger levels (50 linear feet on pipes, 32 square feet on other surfaces, or the volume of a 55-gallon drum). Common places in a pre-1980 Denver home: basement pipe wrap, furnace duct tape, vinyl floor tile and its mastic, plaster skim coats and textured ceilings. Sampling costs $400 to $800; abatement runs $1,500 to $3,000 for a basement's pipe wrap and $10 to $20 per square foot for ceilings.

The inspection list for a pre-1920 Denver home

The general inspection costs $400 to $700; the add-ons are ordered separately. The Denver radon guide and the Denver foundation crack guide go deeper on the two biggest ones.

Financing a historic home with an FHA 203(k)

An FHA 203(k) loan finances the purchase and the rehabilitation in one mortgage, with the repair money held in escrow and paid to the contractor as work is inspected. It fits a district house that needs a panel, a sewer line and windows the seller will not fix. On a designated property, the exterior items need a COA before the lender funds them. Mike Oswald, VP of Mortgage Lending at Rate, NMLS 261003, Equal Housing Lender, writes 203(k) and conventional loans for Denver buyers. You are free to use any lender. Start with the Colorado home financing guide.

The dos and don'ts

Do

• Do pull the landmark map and the district design guidelines before the offer.
• Do order a sewer scope, a radon test and a structural engineer on every pre-1920 home.
• Do ask the seller for past COAs and permits; unpermitted exterior work becomes the buyer's problem.
• Do get the insurance quote inside the inspection period.
• Do keep original wood windows; restoration with weatherstripping and storm windows costs $500 to $1,500 per window and passes review.
• Do use Historic Denver for contractor referrals and district guideline questions.

Don't

• Don't plan on vinyl windows, a front-facing addition or a pop-top; those are the projects that get denied.
• Don't sand or scrape paint in a pre-1978 home without a certified contractor.
• Don't assume the state tax credit covers cosmetic work; it covers approved rehabilitation only.
• Don't waive the inspection to win the house; $600 against a $25,000 sewer line is the best money in the deal.

Where to find historic homes for sale in Denver

Search every home for sale in Colorado and filter by year built before 1930 and the neighborhoods above. The Colorado historic home search guide adds Golden, Boulder, Colorado Springs and Fort Collins, and the hidden problems a Colorado inspection has to find covers what to check before closing. Photos on this post are shared under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 license.

Where to go next

• How the Kenna Real Estate Group helps buyers
• The Colorado home buyer's guide
• First-time home buyer guide for Colorado
• Why older Denver homes win on lot, brick and location
• Homes for sale in Denver
• Meet the Kenna Real Estate Group agents

Talk to the Kenna Real Estate Group

The Kenna Real Estate Group, Keller Williams DTC, checks the landmark overlay, pulls the permit history, schedules the sewer scope, radon test and engineer, and negotiates the findings before a Denver heritage home closes. Call or text 303-955-4220. A live person answers. Not a robot, not a phone tree. Start now and search every home for sale in Colorado.