Auraria

Pricing trends

There are no resale homes to price inside Auraria today. Values in the surrounding districts, LoDo, Union Station and Jefferson Park, are the reference, and the River Mile and Ball Arena plans will set the market for the land itself. The Denver table below carries the citywide numbers.

Citywide figures for Denver. Source: Local Market Update, August 2026, REcolorado data compiled by the Colorado Association of REALTORS®. Neighborhood-level figures vary; ask me for comparables on any specific home. See all area tables.

About Auraria

Auraria is the wedge of land between Cherry Creek, the South Platte and Colfax Avenue where Denver began. Today it holds the Auraria Higher Education Center, shared by the University of Colorado Denver, Metropolitan State University and the Community College of Denver, along with Ball Arena, Empower Field's eastern approaches and the Elitch Gardens site. There is almost no housing on the campus itself, but the land around it is where downtown's next neighborhood is being planned.

Location

Auraria lies southwest of the Central Business District across Speer Boulevard and Cherry Creek, bounded by the South Platte on the west and Colfax Avenue on the south, with Lincoln Park and the Santa Fe Arts District beyond Colfax and Jefferson Park across the river. The Auraria West and Colfax at Auraria stations serve every light rail line, and Union Station is a short walk north.

History and background

Auraria was founded in October 1858 by prospectors from Auraria, Georgia, who built cabins on the west bank of Cherry Creek a few weeks before the rival town of Denver City was laid out on the east bank. The two towns merged under Denver's name in 1860, and Auraria became the city's working west side, a neighborhood of small houses, churches and shops along the creek.

By the twentieth century it was a largely Hispanic neighborhood centered on St. Cajetan's Church and the Ninth Street blocks. In the late 1960s the city and state chose the land for a shared college campus, and the neighborhood was condemned and cleared in the early 1970s over the objections of its residents, who were promised, and in 2021 finally received, scholarships for their descendants.

The Auraria Higher Education Center opened in 1976, keeping Ninth Street's Victorian houses as a historic park, St. Cajetan's and the Tivoli brewery. The campus now serves about 40,000 students, and the land around it, from Elitch Gardens to the Ball Arena lots, is the subject of the largest redevelopment plans in the city.

Housing and architecture

The campus has student housing and little else, but its edges are changing. The River Mile plan would replace Elitch Gardens with a dense riverfront district of apartments, condominiums and parks over the next two decades, and the Ball Arena parking lots are planned for housing and shops. Today a buyer looking at Auraria is really looking at the lofts and towers of LoDo and the Union Station district, or the townhomes of Jefferson Park across the river.

Parks and recreation

Confluence Park, where Cherry Creek meets the South Platte, sits at Auraria's northern tip with the whitewater chute, the REI flagship in the old tramway power house and the start of both river trails. Ball Arena hosts the Nuggets and the Avalanche, Empower Field is across the river, and the campus's Tivoli quad and the Ninth Street Historic Park are open to walkers.

Dining, shopping and daily life

The Tivoli Student Union, a converted 1880s brewery, holds a brewery again along with campus dining, and the campus bookstore and coffee shops serve students and neighbors. Larimer Square, the Dairy Block and the Union Station restaurants are a short walk northeast, and the Santa Fe Arts District is just south across Colfax.