What you get for $1 million

An artist’s concept of indoor/outdoor living in the heart of Boulder. A half-acre refuge less than a half a mile from downtown Louisville. A brick masterpiece with backyard views west across the 17th fairway of Indian Peaks Golf Course in Lafayette. Or your basic mansion at the end of one of the most reclusive, yet most easily accessed, locations in Longmont.

Asking what $1 million will buy in the Boulder Valley? Well, it turns out that it will buy quite a lot in today’s market.

Of course, no city in the valley can eat up that $1 million faster than Boulder, which has about 200 listings at or above seven figures. Still, there are some real finds out there, said Tom Kahn, managing broker of Walnut Realty Inc.

“I’ve been calling it ‘Chautauqua Magic,’´ said Kahn about his listing at 1123 Baseline Road, which features a glass wall that actually opens into a garden. “The owners are artists, and every fixture was chosen with care and nuance.”

Probably a find in Boulder, as the mix of indoor/outdoor living just about a block and a half from Chautauqua is hard to duplicate. Of course, if it’s size that you are looking for, things get a lot bigger for your million bucks in other parts of the valley.

In Longmont a five-bedroom, five-bathroom veritable mansion at 2118 Summerlin Drive comes in at $156 per square foot, or about half the $290 per square foot for the Baseline home. Golf-course homes in Lafayette and Broomfield are also close to that $150 mark.

But the rest of the county is not without the charm of location, either, especially in Louisville, where a 5,1224-square-foot home at 355 W. Spruce St. is listing for $1,135,000.

The large lot size so close to downtown Louisville, in a nine-home neighborhood with large lawns and a country club feel is something that just can’t be found every day, said Jon Hatch, real-estate broker associate with Re/Max of Boulder.

“A lot of the buyers looking at this place have looked from Niwot to Lafayette and Broomfield at similar prices,” he said. “They aren’t finding anything quite as custom, and they won’t have that half acre.”

But rest assured, there are more than a few real-estate agents out there with some good ideas on how to spend that million bucks.

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