College View and South Platte

Pricing trends

College View and South Platte price among the lowest for a detached home inside Denver, below Mar Lee and Athmar Park, with the large lots valued as much for what can be built as for the houses on them. 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 College View

College View and South Platte make up Denver's southwest corner along the river, south of Evans Avenue and east of Federal Boulevard. College View is a neighborhood of small 1940s and 1950s houses on unusually large lots, many without curbs or sidewalks, that still feels semi-rural; South Platte is the industrial and residential strip along the river and Santa Fe Drive. Together they hold some of the lowest-priced land inside the city.

Location

The area runs from Evans Avenue south to the city line near Dartmouth and Bates avenues, between Federal Boulevard and the South Platte, with Ruby Hill to the north, Harvey Park west across Federal, Sheridan and Englewood to the south and Overland across the river. Santa Fe Drive and Federal are the routes; the Evans station on the D Line is across the river.

History and background

College View takes its name from Loretto Heights College, whose hilltop tower was the view from these fields when the Sisters of Loretto opened the school in 1891. The land stayed truck farms and dairies in Arapahoe County into the 1940s, with the smelters and rail yards of South Platte along the river to the east.

Denver annexed the area in the 1940s and 1950s, but it was built up piecemeal rather than by subdivision developers, which left the large lots, the absence of curbs and sidewalks on many streets and the mix of small houses and manufactured homes that still mark it. Mullen High School opened its campus on the neighborhood's west edge in 1931 as a boys' home and became a school in 1965.

The neighborhood became predominantly Latino from the 1970s on and remained one of the city's least expensive. Since the 2010s its lots have drawn buyers from across the city for gardens, workshops and accessory dwelling units, and the river trail and Ruby Hill's revival have given it new neighbors.

Housing and architecture

College View's streets hold 1940s and 1950s frame and brick cottages and ranches on lots of a quarter acre and larger, with room for additional units, workshops or gardens, alongside manufactured homes and a few newer builds. South Platte mixes small houses with warehouses and yards along Santa Fe. Original condition is common, and the lot sizes draw buyers planning to build or add on.

Parks and recreation

The Platte River Trail runs the eastern edge, with Ruby Hill Park's bike park, sledding hill and Levitt Pavilion a mile north and the Mary Carter Greenway continuing south into Englewood and Littleton. Pasquinel's Landing park sits on the river, and Harvey Park's lake and recreation center are west.

Dining, shopping and daily life

Federal Boulevard and Evans Avenue carry grocery stores, Mexican and Vietnamese restaurants and services, with the River Point shopping center in Sheridan and Englewood's South Broadway a short drive. The Mullen High School campus is on the neighborhood's western edge.