Mar Lee

Pricing trends

Mar Lee prices below Harvey Park and alongside Westwood and Athmar Park, with renovated ranches near Garfield Lake at the top and original homes among the lower-priced detached houses in the city. 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 Mar Lee

Mar Lee is the southwest Denver neighborhood between Federal and Sheridan boulevards south of Mississippi Avenue, built mostly in the 1950s with the brick ranches and wide streets of that decade. It has Garfield Lake Park at its heart, Sanderson Gulch running through it, and prices that remain among the more attainable for a detached home with a yard inside the city.

Location

Mar Lee runs from Mississippi Avenue south to Jewell Avenue between Federal and Sheridan boulevards, with Westwood to the north, Ruby Hill and Athmar Park to the east across Federal, Harvey Park to the south and Lakewood across Sheridan. Federal Boulevard and Highway 285 are the routes; downtown is about fifteen minutes.

History and background

Mar Lee was farmland in Arapahoe County until Denver annexed it in the 1940s, part of the city's push southwest after the Second World War. The neighborhood takes its name from the Mar Lee subdivision, one of several platted on the former farms, and Garfield Lake, an irrigation reservoir, became its park.

Builders filled the blocks in the 1950s with brick ranches for the families of the post-war boom, the same decade that gave Harvey Park and Westwood their housing. Sanderson Gulch, once an open ditch, was turned into a trail corridor in later decades.

The neighborhood became home to many Mexican-American and, later, Vietnamese families from the 1970s on, and Federal Boulevard's restaurants reflect both. Mar Lee changed little otherwise until the 2010s, when Denver's rising prices brought renovation and new buyers to its original ranches.

Housing and architecture

The streets hold 1950s and early 1960s brick ranches on 60- to 70-foot lots, many with basements and attached or detached garages, with some 1940s houses near Mississippi and a few newer duplexes along the main streets. The housing is consistent and largely original, which makes it a renovation neighborhood for buyers and investors.

Parks and recreation

Garfield Lake Park, with its lake loop, playground and ball fields, is the neighborhood's center, and the Sanderson Gulch trail connects it east to the Platte River Trail and Ruby Hill Park. Mar Lee Park and the Westwood Recreation Center are nearby, and Harvey Park's lake and recreation center are south.

Dining, shopping and daily life

Federal Boulevard carries one of the metro's best runs of Vietnamese, Mexican and Central American restaurants and markets, with Sheridan and Jewell adding grocery stores and services. Belmar's shops and restaurants in Lakewood are a short drive west, and Ruby Hill's Levitt Pavilion concerts are just east.