Full briefing · authored by the Delta market agent
Good · confidence 4 / 5
An honest price, in the heart of town
229 Colorado Ave · Paonia, CO · $425,000
The market's read
At $425,000 this 1967 ranch asks below the county's $450,627 valuation and right at the online market estimate — a price the seller has cut twice to reach. It owns Stewart Ditch irrigation water and sits a short walk from everything Paonia.
⊙ Your advisor asks
This one's all about walk-to-town and owned water, not size. Is that the trade you'd make?
The full briefing↓
The numbers, clear
Three ways to price it — and they agree
The ask sits between two independent estimates instead of above them.
Asking
$425,000$281 / sq ft
County value
$450,627above the ask
Market estimate
$420,300right on the ask
Est. tax / yr
$2,208mill levy 70.9
The Home Zero test
Does this home take care of you?
Six ways a home drives your cost of living toward zero — and the one thing to watch.
✓
Owns its water
A Stewart Ditch share — keeps a garden, lawn and the apple tree alive through a dry summer. (Confirm it conveys.)
✓
Soil that feeds
Colona silty clay loam — prime farmland if irrigated, which the ditch makes possible.
✓
Sun on the roof
Room for 78 panels, ~49,000 kWh a year — a strong solar site against future power bills.
✓
Walk, don't drive
Grocery, school and fire within half a mile; seven essentials inside 5 km. Less gas, less wear.
✓
Low fire risk
Non-burnable — the lowest USFS hazard class. A real ease on insurance.
!
Watch: it's 59 years old
One family since 1967. Newer furnace & water heater; everything else is original — budget a full inspection.
A
Your Home Zero advisorWeighing in on the market's briefing
This is the one I'd open your folder with. You told me you're not chasing a flip — you want a place that holds you, where the monthly math is quiet. Here's my one-line read:
“A plainly built town home, owned water, a walkable mile, and — for once — a price the evidence can defend. The only thing between you and it is a good inspection.”
I've flagged the two places it matters most to you as we go.
The other side of the table
What the listing says
Pitched as a well-built original-owner town home.
Seller's pitch
The seller pitches 229 Colorado Avenue as a well-built, original-owner home on three city lots — quality 1960s craftsmanship with a low-maintenance metal exterior and rock veneer, large windows, a newer furnace and water heater, and a big usable basement. The listing leans on the tidy lawns, an iconic apple tree in the front yard, and irrigation water from the Stewart Ditch. It is sold plainly as a sound, move-in town home with room to store and grow.
The question every buyer asks first
Is $425,000 a fair price?
At $425,000 the home asks $281 a square foot. The Delta County assessor values the whole property at $450,627 — above the asking price. The automated market estimate lands at $420,300, almost exactly on the ask. Two independent numbers, and the price sits between them rather than above them — the opposite of the usual story.
The listing history shows a seller who has done the adjusting. The home went up in October 2025 at $525,000, was cut to $475,000 in January, then cut again to $425,000 in May — a $100,000 reduction across about seven months. That is a price walked down to meet the market, not held above it. After 231 days the ask is finally where the evidence supports it.
Listed at $525,000, cut to $475,000, then to today's $425,000 — a price walked down to the record.
A
Your advisoron the price
Two cuts already did the hard negotiating for you. I wouldn't expect a big third cut — but a seller 231 days in is motivated. With thin equity, every dollar at closing matters; I'd open inspection-contingent and let the report do the talking.
Drawn from — Listing history · Assessor · Recorded sales
Past the photos
So what are you actually buying?
This is a single-story ranch built in 1967, 1,512 square feet over a full basement, on a flat corner parcel of three city lots — about a fifth of an acre — at 5,711 feet on the Paonia valley floor. The exterior is low-maintenance: metal siding, a metal roof, stone veneer. The land cover is straightforward developed town lot, gentle 7% slope. There are no views to speak of and no view premium baked into the price.
The seller's pitch — quality 1960s craftsmanship, big windows, a usable basement, a newer furnace and water heater — reads as honest, but it is also the pitch of a home that has had one family for 59 years. What the listing names as updated is a short list; everything it doesn't name is 59 years old. Read it as a sound, plain home that wants a thorough inspection, not a renovated one.
A plain, well-built 1967 ranch on three flat town lots — metal roof, stone veneer, the apple tree out front.
Drawn from — Assessor · Listing · Elevation & slope · Land cover
The daily math
How far is everything?
This is about as central as Paonia gets. Don's Market is half a mile off; Paonia Elementary, also half a mile; the fire station, a quarter mile; the post office, the library and the bank all under a mile. Seven everyday essentials sit within five kilometres of the door. For a household that wants to drive less — and spend less doing it — this location does real work.
The one genuine distance is healthcare. The nearest family-medicine clinic is in Delta, about 26 miles away — roughly a 40-minute drive. That is the trade-off of small-town Colorado, and it is worth knowing before an emergency makes the point. Everything else is close enough to reach on foot.
Grocery, school and fire station all within half a mile; the nearest hospital, 26 miles off.
Drawn from — Points of interest · Road access
The Home Zero question
Does it own water, or grow food?
The listing states the property carries irrigation water from the Stewart Ditch — a ditch share, the kind of owned water that lets a town lot grow food and keep lawns and an orchard alive through a dry Western Colorado summer. The state's decree database does not return a separate parcel-level right, so the precise seniority and amount should be confirmed in the deed and the ditch company's records — but a stated ditch share on a Paonia lot is a real asset.
The soil underneath is a Colona silty clay loam — classed prime farmland if irrigated, which is exactly what the ditch makes possible. The parcel reads as developed town lot, never row-cropped, but the apple tree out front and the irrigation already show what it can do. Against Home Zero's three cost-to-zero tests — owned water, soil that feeds people, sun on the roof — this small lot quietly passes all three.
Owned ditch water, prime-if-irrigated soil, a strong solar roof — this lot meets all three cost-to-zero tests.
A
Your advisoron the water
This is the line that turns a town lot into a Home Zero home — but the share is the one thing I won't take on the listing's word. Before you remove contingencies, I'll get the ditch company on the phone and read the conveyance in the deed myself. If it conveys, this home feeds you. If it doesn't, it's still a fair buy — just a different one.
Drawn from — Listing · Soils · Cropland history · Groundwater
The honest balance
What's genuinely good here?
The positives here are real and they stack. The wildfire hazard rates non-burnable — the lowest class the USFS assigns, an ease on insurance. The roof is a strong solar site: the model fits 78 panels and roughly 49,000 kilowatt-hours a year. The price sits below county value, the water is owned, and the home is a flat half-mile walk from town. For a buyer measuring cost of living, that is a genuinely good set of bones.
Two things still belong on the list. The home is 59 years old with one set of original owners — the roof and metal siding are low-maintenance, but the wiring, plumbing, basement and what the listing doesn't mention all want a proper inspection. And the area sits in severe drought right now, which is the standing background condition for the whole valley. Neither changes the read: this is an honestly priced, well-located town home.
Owned water, a walkable town and low fire risk outweigh the one real watch-item — the home's 1967 age.
Drawn from — Wildfire hazard (USFS) · Solar (Google) · Assessor · Drought Monitor
⚑ Honest caveats — worth verifying before you commit
The Stewart Ditch water is named in the listing but does not surface as a parcel-level decree in the state database — confirm the seniority, the share amount and that it conveys, in the deed and with the ditch company. The home is 59 years old with original owners since 1967: the listing names a newer furnace and water heater, which means everything else — wiring, plumbing, the basement, windows — is the original vintage and wants a full inspection. Recorded sales show a single transfer at $0; deeds of trust and state permits are on-demand layers, not yet pulled. Zoning isn't on file for this parcel — confirm allowed use with the Town of Paonia.
The receipts — all 34 layers tap to open
Ownership & Identity · 3
Tax parcelsCounty parcel GIS
⚑ A local, owner-occupant household mailing to a Paonia PO box — not absentee. 0.21 acres, account R008522.
AssessorDelta County EagleWeb
⚑ County actual value $450,627 — land $106,000, improvement $344,627. Built 1967. Mill levy 70.9; estimated tax about $2,208 a year. Lots 23–25, Block 5, Hawkins/Moller Addition.
Address validationGoogle
Confirmed and geocoded to the parcel — an accepted, complete in-town address.
Market, Money & Distress · 8
ListingsListing record
⚑ $425,000 · 3 bd / 2 ba / 1,512 sq ft · ranch, 1967. Listed October 2025 at $525,000, cut to $475,000 then $425,000. The online estimate is $420,300 — right at the asking price.
Recorded salesCounty records
⚑ One transfer on file — a 2001 warranty deed recorded at $0. The sellers are the original 1967 owners; the parcel has effectively never traded at arm's length.
Tax historyCounty treasurer
No liens, not delinquent. 31 years in the ledger, taxes paid; a 90-day average clearing lag. Last payment April 2026.
ForeclosuresCounty Public Trustee
None on file.
Deeds of trustCounty recorder
Not yet examined. The recorder's portal is captcha-gated and name-indexed — pulled per home before an offer.
Legal noticesLegal notices
No published foreclosure, probate or treasurer's-deed notice matched to the owner.
PermitsColorado DORA
Not yet examined. Delta County issues no building permits; state electrical & plumbing permits are the proxy, pulled per home.
Distress scoreHome Zero
Low. Local owner-occupants, taxes current, no liens or foreclosure history — no distress signals fired.
Agriculture, Soil & Water · 7
Cropland historyUSDA CDL
Developed town lot in every one of the last 14 years observed. Never row-cropped, never orchard.
GreennessSentinel-2
A modest NDVI swing — the signature of lawns and an apple tree on a developed lot, not an irrigated field.
Irrigated landsColorado DWR
No mapped irrigated acreage at the parcel — expected for a town lot, though the listing names a Stewart Ditch share.
Water rightsColorado DWR decrees
⚑ No separate parcel-level decree returns. The listing states irrigation water from the Stewart Ditch — confirm seniority, amount and conveyance in the deed and ditch records.
GroundwaterColorado DWR
Mesaverde aquifer; nearest monitoring well 8 km off. The home is on public water, so groundwater depth is not in play.
SoilsUSDA SSURGO
⚑ Colona silty clay loam, 1–6% slopes — well drained, surface pH 7.6, classed prime farmland if irrigated.
Land coverUSGS NLCD
Developed, medium intensity — a town residential lot.
Terrain, Climate & Hazards · 7
Elevation & slopeUSGS
5,711 ft on the Paonia valley floor — a gentle 7% slope facing northwest. Flat, buildable town ground.
ClimateNOAA
Mean 50.6°F; about 17 in of precipitation a year; roughly 45 days over 90°F. A warm-summer, four-season valley climate.
Frost datesNOAA
Last spring frost early May, first fall frost late September — about 156 growing days, ample for a garden and the apple tree.
Wildfire hazardUSFS
⚑ Non-burnable — the lowest hazard class, typical of a developed town lot. A real ease on insurance.
DroughtUS Drought Monitor
⚑ Severe drought (D2) over the parcel as of the latest release — the standing valley-wide condition.
FEMA floodFEMA
Not within a mapped FEMA flood zone.
County floodwayCounty 2009 study
Does not intersect the county's mapped floodway.
Location, Regulation & Context · 9
ZoningTown of Paonia
⚑ No zoning record captured for this parcel — a known gap; confirm allowed use with the Town of Paonia.
Public landBLM
No BLM-managed surface land at the parcel — an in-town residential lot.
ConservationUSGS PAD-US
No protected area at or adjoining the parcel.
WildlifeColorado Parks & Wildlife
⚑ Mapped within elk and mule-deer severe winter range and a bald-eagle winter concentration area — the valley-floor overlay; unlikely to constrain a town lot.
Oil & gasColorado COGCC
No oil or gas well within the immediate vicinity of this in-town parcel.
EPA sitesUS EPA
⚑ An RCRA-listed coal-mine site about 0.4 km off and a dry-cleaner air permit 0.5 km off — typical small-town industrial neighbors; no Superfund site nearby.
Points of interestGeodata
Grocery, school, fire station, library, bank and post office all within a mile; seven essentials within 5 km. Nearest hospital 26 miles in Delta.
Road accessGoogle
About 19 m to the nearest road — fronting the street on a corner lot. Not landlocked.
SolarGoogle Solar
A strong roof — room for 78 panels and roughly 49,000 kWh a year.