Why would two homes in Broomfield, both priced in the high $800,000s, carry a monthly HOA bill that differs by more than $100 before either buyer even applies for a mortgage?
It's not finish level. It's not lot size. It's which Broomfield you're actually buying into.
Broomfield's citywide median sale price came in at $659,000 over the three months ending July 2026, up 3.9 percent from the same period a year earlier, with homes averaging 24 days on the market and 318 sales closing in July alone. That number gets quoted constantly, and it's accurate. It's also close to useless for deciding where to put an offer, because it blends four master-planned communities that are not competing in the same market at all. One is still pouring foundations. Two finished building years ago and now only change hands through resale. One is age-restricted and will never take a new-construction buyer again. Each of those conditions sets price and monthly cost in a different way, and none of them show up in a headline median.
Same City, Four Different Markets
Anthem, Anthem Highlands, Anthem Ranch, and Baseline sit within a few miles of each other off I-25 and Highway 7 in north Broomfield. A buyer scanning listings by price alone could easily land in any of the four without realizing they're looking at four different supply situations, four different HOA structures, and four different reasons a seller might or might not have room to negotiate.
The mechanism worth understanding before you write an offer isn't the price tag. It's whether the community you're buying into can still add supply, or whether every listing you see is the entire remaining inventory that will ever exist there.
The One That's Still Building
Baseline sits at the junction of I-25, Northwest Parkway, and Baseline Road, and it is the only one of the four still under active construction. New construction there starts near $510,000, with builders including Dream Finders Homes offering single-family product in Parkside West from the mid-$500s and Boulder Creek Neighborhoods running two distinct lines: a wee-Cottages collection from the mid-$500s and a three-story Limited Edition collection built exclusively for Baseline that starts in the high $800,000s and runs past $1 million. David Weekley Homes is also actively selling in the community's Peaks Collection.
Because Baseline hasn't finished building, its price ladder moves the way any active construction site's does. Builders compete on incentives, financing offers, and lot release timing rather than pure resale demand. The community is also still adding the things that make a master-planned neighborhood feel finished: Rally Park, a future gathering spot for basketball, pickleball, and picnics, is under construction now and slated to open in 2027, and Baseline has a K-12 STEM charter school planned along with a commercial buildout on Center Street that will eventually bring dining and shopping within walking distance. None of that exists yet. A buyer paying Baseline's entry-level price today is paying for a community that is still becoming what it's advertised to be, which is a very different proposition than paying a similar price for a finished product a mile away.
The Two That Are Already Full
Anthem Highlands and Anthem proper are both fully built out. Construction began in the community roughly two decades ago across multiple builders, and there is no new inventory coming. Every listing in either community today is a resale, which means price is set entirely by how badly the current pool of buyers wants what's already there.
Anthem Highlands carried a median price near $1,000,000 as of April 2026, with homes ranging as low as the $600,000s and as high as $1.5 million depending on lot position and finish. The pull toward the top of that range is specific and traceable: Thunder Vista P-8, a school that sits inside the community itself, is a genuine draw for families who want their kids walking to school rather than being bused, and the 32,000-square-foot Parkside Community Center backs that up with pools, a fitness facility, and sport courts included in an HOA fee of $185 a month. That fee has stayed modest relative to what it covers because the community isn't funding new construction, only maintaining what's already finished.
Anthem proper, the non-age-restricted section outside Anthem Ranch, traded at a median closer to $918,000 as of April 2026, with sales ranging from roughly $565,000 up to $1.3 million. The spread is wider here because the housing stock itself is more varied, running from smaller resale product up to 3,000- to 5,000-square-foot custom and semi-custom builds with mountain views and mature landscaping that Anthem Highlands, built later and more uniformly, doesn't have as much of.
Two fully built-out communities a few blocks apart, both selling only resale, priced apart mostly by school assignment and lot premium rather than anything a builder controls.
The One That Only Resells
Anthem Ranch is Broomfield's age-restricted 55-plus section, developed by Del Webb with more than 1,300 single-level ranch homes. New construction there ended, which means every current listing, without exception, is a resale. Prices run from roughly the mid-$600,000s to $1.1 million and beyond depending on floor plan, lot, and upgrades.
The HOA fee here averages $300 to $350 a month, noticeably higher than Anthem Highlands' $185, and the reason is what it bundles. Anthem Ranch's dues cover the 32,000-square-foot Aspen Lodge clubhouse with its indoor and outdoor pools, pickleball and tennis courts, fitness classes, and more than 120 social clubs, plus lawn care and snow removal on every home. For a downsizer weighing a move out of a house they've maintained for decades, that bundled exterior maintenance is often the actual selling point, not the square footage. It's also why this community's resale prices hold up: the buyer pool isn't shopping on price per square foot the way a young family might. They're shopping on how little of the property they'll have to personally maintain, and that's a demand driver a builder in Baseline can't manufacture just by releasing more lots.
Four Communities, Four Price Stories
| Community | Status as of 2026 | Typical price range | Monthly HOA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baseline | Actively building | New construction from the mid-$500s to $1M+ | Varies by builder and phase |
| Anthem Highlands | Fully built out, resale only | Median near $1.0M (April 2026) | $185 |
| Anthem | Fully built out, resale only | $918K median, range $565Kâ$1.3M (April 2026) | Varies by section |
| Anthem Ranch (55+) | Resale only, age-restricted | Roughly mid-$600s to $1.1M+ | $300â$350 |
What the Median Actually Tells You
Broomfield's $659,000 citywide median from the three months ending July 2026 isn't a snapshot of one market's health. It's an average of a neighborhood that's still under construction, two neighborhoods where every sale is a resale competing for a fixed slice of families who want a specific school or a specific lot, and one neighborhood where the buyer pool is defined by life stage rather than budget alone.
That matters differently depending on which side of a transaction you're on. A buyer comparing a Baseline listing to an Anthem Highlands listing at a similar price isn't comparing two versions of the same product. One comes with a builder incentive and a community still filling in its amenities. The other comes with a finished clubhouse, an established school assignment, and no new competition ever showing up next door. A seller in Anthem Highlands doesn't need to worry that Baseline's lower entry price will pull buyers away, because the two aren't drawing from the same pool of people. And a buyer weighing Anthem Ranch against a non-age-restricted home elsewhere in Broomfield should run the HOA math alongside the purchase price, since a $300-a-month clubhouse fee adds up to more than $3,600 a year that a standalone home's payment won't include.
None of this shows up if you sort listings by price and stop there. It shows up when you ask what stage each community is actually in.
A Few Questions Worth Asking
Will Baseline's HOA or metro district costs stay this low as the community keeps building? Newer master-planned communities in Colorado often add or adjust metro district assessments as infrastructure continues, so it's worth asking a builder or title company exactly what's already been issued in bonds versus what's still planned before treating today's number as permanent.
Can I still buy new construction in Anthem or Anthem Highlands? No. Both communities are fully built out, and every current listing in either one is a resale.
Is Anthem Ranch open to buyers under 55? It's an age-restricted community developed by Del Webb, so it follows the standard 55-plus occupancy rules typical of that community type.
Comparing these four communities side by side is exactly the kind of work that turns a listing search into an actual decision, and it's easier with someone who tracks Broomfield's submarkets daily rather than glancing at a citywide average. Sold With Kathryn works with buyers and sellers across Broomfield's master-planned communities and the wider Denver metro, backed by CNE negotiation training and SRES certification for clients weighing exactly the kind of downsizing questions Anthem Ranch raises. Reach out for a home valuation or a consultation built around the specific community you're comparing, not just the number on the portal.
