Week of December 29, 2022
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DOUGLAS COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
ParkerChronicle.net
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 10 | LIFE: PAGE 12 | CALENDAR: PAGE 15
VOLUME 21 | ISSUE 5
Small drop unlikely to reverse skyrocketing home prices Sellers, buyers play waiting game BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Brian Spencer, with the state health department, provided data showing that pre-pandemic numbers had higher rates of vaccinations in Colorado. During the 2018-19 flu season, 1.9 million got the flu shot. In 2019-20 just over 2.1 million got the annual shot. “In some states, flu cases and hospitalizations are at their highest marks since the H1N1 flu pandemic back in 2009,” said Dr. Eric France, chief medical officer of the state health department. “Flu vaccines are recommended for everyone aged 6 months and older, with rare exceptions. Flu vaccines are the best way to prevent spreading the flu to people who are most at risk, including older adults, young children, people who are pregnant, and people with certain chronic health conditions.” According to the state health department, it can take up to two weeks for the shot to be fully effective, which means during holiday gatherings this month, the unvaccinated can spread the flu faster. On a national level, the CDC reported at least 13 million have had
Danielle and Stephan Storinsky “saw the writing on the wall.” It foretold how the housing market might change. So, earlier this year, the married couple sold their Arvada townhome. They timed it just right. They capitalized before concerns about inflation took center stage. They sold their home when the metro area was gripped by historically high housing prices. They bought their townhome about five years ago for $285,000. They sold for $521,000. “That part’s pretty nice because now we have a decent amount of money to put down on something,” Stephan Storinsky said. But now, on the other side of cashing in, they find themselves playing a waiting game. Even with the tidy profit they hauled in, they are struggling to find a home at a good value. Houses on the market today “are just not worth the price that people are asking,” said Stephan Storinsky. The couple are living with parents, constantly keeping their eyes open for a good deal. The couple isn’t alone. While the number of available metro area houses shot upward in a year, so has the number of days those homes are sitting on the market until they sell, according to the latest report by the Colorado Association of Realtors. One sign of the cooling real estate market are For Sale signs outside homes, an indication realtors are no longer overwhelmed by prospective clients. The shift comes as mortgage rates — the amount of interest people pay on their home loans — ticked steadily upwards in recent months, making housing that’s been rising in price for the better part of a decade even costlier. The only light at the end of the
SEE HEALTH, P7
SEE HOUSING, P8
Flu vaccinations still have not gone back to pre-pandemic numbers and cases and hospitalizations are increasing.
SHUTTERSTOCK
Flu cases, hospitalizations on the rise Officials push for vaccinations BY THELMA GRIMES TGRIMES@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Flu cases are on the rise, and according to state health officials, hospitalizations are higher this year than they have been in the past 10 years. The surge has a variety of causes, including people not getting the flu shot as consistently as in past years. Dr. Ben Usatch, UCHealth ER director at Highlands Ranch Hospital, said COVID vaccinations brought on this onslaught of “mixed emotions” that resulted in other annual shots being affected — flu shots being one of them. “The bottom line is flu vaccines are the best protection to get through the season,” Usatch said. “They do not hit the target right on the head, but they make a big difference.” In reality, said Dr. Reginald Washington, HealthOne chief medical officer for Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Hospital and Rocky Moun-
tain Hospital for Children, with all the flu strains, the vaccine’s effectiveness is between 50% and 70%. But even with those odds, people fare better through the season with the shot that has nothing to do with COVID. “Flu vaccines are not 100% effective,” Washington said, “they never have been. This year, it is 70% effective. People are just tired of being told to get a vaccine. But it does need to be updated every year.” According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Prevention (CDC), recent studies show that getting a flu vaccination can reduce the risk of flu illness between 40% and 60% during flu season. Even with the vaccination burnout, Colorado residents have already exceeded last year’s flushot numbers, according to the Colorado Department of Health and Environment, with 1.68 million getting the flu shot. Last year at the same time, 1.66 million were vaccinated. Still hospitalizations are increasing and health officials say people are not getting the shot at rates they did before the COVID pandemic.