In February 2025, Tony and Robin Kohake paid $2.6 million for a two-story house at 800 S. Franklin Street, across from Washington Park itself. The 11,600-square-foot corner lot became the focus of their demolition plans, which drew objections from neighbors. A few blocks away, Jody Debs, a longtime resident, looked at the same structure and saw one of the six oldest homes in the zip code, built before the park existed, once home to a sitting Denver County Court judge. Same walls, same roof, same foundation. Same property, two completely different products.
That split is not a curiosity. It is the mechanism that makes Wash Park's median price nearly useless as a planning number, and it is worth understanding before you compare a single listing to a single comp.
The Number Casey Miller Keeps Running Into
A LIV Sotheby's International Realty agent who has lived in Wash Park for twenty years, Casey Miller, described the pattern to the Denver Gazette this way: smaller bungalows are getting $1.3 million to $1.5 million purely for their "scrape value," then reappearing months later as new custom homes topping 5,500 finished square feet. The phrase matters more than it sounds like it should. Once a lot crosses that $1.3 to $1.5 million line, the structure sitting on it stops functioning as a price variable. A rotted foundation and a fresh kitchen remodel can command the same number, because the buyer on the other side of the table is pricing dirt, not drywall.
That is a different market than the one most buyers think they are shopping in when they pull up a Wash Park listing. Below that floor, condition still moves the price the way it does everywhere else. Above it, on the park-perimeter blocks along streets like East Virginia Avenue, South Franklin Street, and South Humboldt, you are usually paying for a finished renovation or new construction, not comparing against the scrape floor at all. The confusion happens in the middle, when a buyer assumes two similarly priced homes are similarly valued and finds out during inspection, or during a bidding war against a builder, that they were never competing for the same thing.
Here is roughly how that breaks down right now:
| Price Range | What You're Actually Paying For |
|---|---|
| $850,000–$1.3 million | A livable but dated bungalow, priced on its own condition |
| $1.3 million–$1.5 million | The lot itself. The structure's value rounds close to zero |
| $1.6 million–$2.5 million and up | A finished renovation or completed new custom build |
If you are comparing two listings that both sit around $1.4 million, one thing to ask before you fall for either is whether the seller, and every other bidder, is actually evaluating the house or has already mentally demolished it.
How a Demolition Plan Became a Landmark Case
The 800 S. Franklin case shows how a demolition plan can intersect with Denver’s landmark process. The timeline is worth laying out because it illustrates steps a buyer could encounter on a smaller scale.
- February 2025: the Kohakes buy the property for $2.6 million, intending to build a Tudor-style family home on the corner lot.
- May 2025: they apply for a demolition permit. City staff, evaluating the 1884 structure, find it has potential for individual landmark status and post notice at the property.
- Late June 2025: two resident groups, 24 people between them, file notices of intent to seek landmark designation, which pauses the demolition process and forces mediation.
- Through the summer, mediation between the Kohakes and the preservation groups fails to produce an agreement.
- Late August 2025: Debs and two co-applicants, Stefanie Jacobs and Susan Holbrook, file a formal landmark application over the owners' objection. At the same time, the property is listed for sale at $3.1 million, $475,000 above the Kohakes' purchase price.
- September 16, 2025: Denver's Landmark Preservation Commission holds a hearing and splits 3-3. The application fails to advance to City Council.
The commission received 55 letters supporting preservation and 100 opposing it, plus a petition against designation signed by 121 people, according to reporting on the hearing. Two registered neighborhood organizations backed the preservation bid, and the nonprofit Historic Denver assisted the applicants.
As BusinessDen reported, Tony Kohake said before the vote: "We are still a bit shocked individuals can landmark designate someone else's property against their consent with almost no skin in the game." BusinessDen reports that the application fee is $875 and that filing does not require an ownership stake.
This was not the only recent Denver case in which owners and preservation advocates disagreed. A Dutch Colonial Revival in City Park West was landmarked in 2023 over owner objection. A home on Montview Boulevard in South Park Hill went the other way in early 2024, when neighbors' preservation bid was rejected 6-0, and the new house on that lot is now finished. 800 S. Franklin followed the second pattern.
What the Median Is Actually Averaging
Pull up three different market trackers for Washington Park right now and you will get three different stories. One recent snapshot puts the trailing median sale price near $1.59 million with a price per square foot around $537 and homes taking about 50 days to sell. Another, tracking May 2026 closings specifically, shows a median closer to $1.7 million at roughly $577 per square foot with homes moving in about a month. A broader neighborhood report covering the first half of 2026 describes typical single-family sales in the $1.1 million to $1.4 million band, climbing to $1.6 million to $2.5 million on the park perimeter, with entry-level homes occasionally starting near $850,000 to $950,000 on the neighborhood's eastern and southern edges.
None of those numbers are wrong. They are measuring different mixes of the same two markets described above, one where the structure matters and one where it does not, in whatever proportion happened to close that month. That is why the median swings by hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on which few weeks you sample. A reporting piece on the neighborhood's pre-school-year listing surge this summer put active inventory at roughly 45 homes with an average of 74 days on market, alongside a median listing figure north of $2 million, a reminder that list price and the scrape-value floor are two entirely separate ceilings operating on the same street.
Casey Miller also described a recurring buyer profile he calls circular flow: families who start in Wash Park, move to suburbs like Greenwood Village once kids arrive, then return to the neighborhood later for the walkability. That pattern helps explain why demand at the top end keeps absorbing new custom homes even as overall inventory grows, and why a scrape-value bungalow rarely sits long enough to test what its structure alone might have been worth.
What This Means Before You Write an Offer
If you are comparing homes in this neighborhood rather than just checking the sign in the yard, a few habits are worth building in.
Ask where a listing sits relative to that $1.3 to $1.5 million floor before you weigh its condition at all. Below it, a fresh roof or an updated kitchen is a genuine differentiator. Near or above it, you may be bidding against a builder who has already valued the structure at zero.
Check whether a demolition permit application or a landmark notice has been filed on the property, and ask your agent to check the same for anything you are watching nearby. The notice process on 800 S. Franklin moved fast.
Treat renovation quality as a real variable once you're above the scrape floor. Not every remodel is executed with the same care, and homes with poorly done updates tend to sit longer and close at a discount even in a tight market like this one.
Understand that "old" does not mean "protected." Denver's landmark process requires an affirmative application and a City Council vote. Age alone, even a structure built in 1884, confers no automatic status.
None of this is about whether a scrape-value sale or a preserved home is the right outcome. It is about knowing, before you fall for a listing photo, which of the two products you are actually pricing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a home's age protect it from demolition in Denver? No. A structure can be reviewed for landmark potential when a demolition permit is filed, but designation requires a formal application and, ultimately, City Council approval. Without that, a by-right demolition can proceed once required permits are in place.
How do I know if a listing I'm considering is priced at scrape value rather than as a livable home? Compare the asking price against recent land-only sales on comparable lots in the same blocks, and ask whether the listing agent is marketing the interior at all or focusing the listing on lot size and buildable square footage. If similar-condition homes a few blocks over are selling well above the asking price, the number you're looking at may already reflect the land, not the house.
Can a pending landmark application delay a home sale? A pending landmark application can affect a home's timeline.
If you are weighing a Wash Park bungalow against a park-perimeter renovation, or trying to figure out which side of that scrape-value line a specific listing actually sits on, Rule Properties can walk the comps with you block by block. Connect with Ben and Erin for a tailored market valuation before you write the offer, not after.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.