When you live in Colorado Springs, you don't have to use up a LOT of gas to get out and have some fun in the outdoors. Yesterday we took part of our holiday weekend to do a hike up at the Florissant Fossil beds National Monument, and then stopped in Cripple Creek for a little while before heading back. Both are around a 1 hour drive from here.

The weather was great. While it was in the low 80's in the Springs, it was in the low 60's in Cripple Creek. We got plenty of sun and exercice, and even managed to catch a shot of some deer on one one the trails.

How much cheaper is it to live in Colorado Springs than other towns? This mornings Gazette covered a story from the Council for Community and Economic Research showing Colorado Springs as 7.9% below the national average for cost of living. While we have always been a little below the national average, it is usually less than 5% below, so I was a little curious what they attributed it to. Turns out our gas prices did not jump quite as fast as some other areas of the country during the 1st quarter, and that was a big item. I went to Bankrate.com to see their cost of living calculator, and did a quick compare with San Bernardino California (we get a lot of Californians who come here to get away from the crowds. It was fascinating to see that, at least in this analysis, they indicate a family making $80,000 a year there, can live just as well for less than $60,000 here. The cost of housing seems to make a big difference. While I am not convinced the differences are quite THAT much, I know that many who come here find they can live better, for less.

Today's photo is from the green belt above the Old Farm area, where I just listed a 1900 sf 4bed 3 bath home for $219,900 .

Colorado gets its share of extreme weather, but the tornado episode yesterday in Windsor Colorado was pretty bad. My deepest sympathy to those affected, including the family of the person who was killed. My own daughter was at work in Ft Collins, less than 10 miles from where it happened, and she said the whole building shook, the lights were swinging, and it was very scary. She is filling in for someone who is on pregnancy leave for the summer, and the girl she filled in for had the windows blown out of her house. Thankfully she and the baby were ok.
Colorado Springs does not typically get tornadoes (neither does Ft Collins for that matter), because we are pretty close to the mountains, and they tend to form further onto the eastern plains. Hail, lightening, thunder, big winds yes, but not tornadoes. In 17 years of living here, we have not had one in the city yet that I can recall, although there have been some out east. It has been a cool and breezy last couple of days, but Memorial Day weekend is expected to be very nice.
I made a couple of changes to the blog that I hope you find useful. You can now subscribe by email, so that if you prefer email as an access method it is there (you have always been able to use the RSS feed). The other change is that we eliminated the Snapshots preview. This was a harder decision, but my own testing of the site seemed to indicate it could be annoying almost as often as it was helpful. If you have an opinion you'd like to share on that one, I'd love to hear from you!

Homes for sale in Colorado Springs have some interesting differences from other areas of the country, and I thought I would describe some of them here.
#1. Colorado Springs homes usually have some kind of usable basement, and as a result, square footage published on most real estate web sites, and by the Realtors, includes the basement. This can make a big difference if you are coming from, say California, where earthquakes preclude such things. A 2,000 square foot ranch style home here will like have an additional 2000 square foot basement, often finished, making it a 4,000 square foot home. Also, our dry climate makes the space much more usable than say, the Midwest, where summer humidity can make for mold problems in basements. Our MLS is set up so we can search based on total square footage, finished square footage or "above grade" square footage, but most of the public access sites do not have this ability, so it can be confusing sometimes.
#2. Colorado Springs homes run on the newer side. Almost half (47.7%) of the 6,342 homes for sale here (as of May 22, 2008) were built since 1998. Only 25.9% were built prior to 1978. So our homes tend to be fairly current with energy code and building technologies, such as roofing materials, windows, etc.
#3 Colorado Springs homes use different materials than some other areas. Brick is a little pricier here, so stucco and stone, and Masonite type siding products tend to be more popular. Painted siding is not a favorite from a maintenance standpoint, as our strong sun and wind tends to require repainting every 5 years or so, but it is still used a lot because of the lower cost. We do not see as much vinyl siding as you’d expect. I have never heard a real good discussion on this, but it may have to do with hail and wind vulnerability.
#4 Our yards tend to have fewer and smaller trees than some other areas of the country. This is generally because of climate issues (it takes a lot more time and effort to get them to grow in our dry climate), but also because of soil conditions. Many areas have poor soil, and without soil augmentation and lots of TLC, the trees just don’t want to grow. We plant them with every new house, but after 5 years, they are often barely beyond saplings still. Sometimes trees are deliberately left out to preserve a Pikes Peak view. My home is 15 years old, and we have some sizable trees now.
#5 Most (53.8% currently) of our homes offer (or claim to offer!) a view of the mountains. The rest often still have a great view from the neighborhood for an evening walk, but not from the house itself.

Summer has arrived in Colorado Springs. Not on the calendar, but on the thermometer. We are in a balmy 80 plus degree pattern at the moment, which would be a little nicer if we were getting our normal afternoon thunderstorms, which we are not. It is getting dry out there, we could really use some rain.

Memorial Day weekend is this week! School is about to get out (my teacher wife is counting the days), and everyone is gearing up for graduations, weddings, and lots of outdoor grilling. Air Force Academy graduation is the Wednesday after Memorial Day, and along with the Thunderbirds air show, President Bush will be speaking. I am hoping to get some decent photos of the Thunderbirds, I'll share them here if I do. Graduation week is usually a tough one for people who need hotel rooms, as the whole town kind of fills up for the graduation and the ensuing spate of weddings that take place in the days that follow.

This is usually when the high mountain passes of Trail Ridge Road at Rocky Mountain National Park, and Independence Pass open, although rumor is that Independence is a week or more behind schedule due to the huge amount of snow they had this winter and spring. The photo is of my son Daniel from 3 summers ago, 4th of July week at Independence Pass.

We really don't visit downtown Colorado Springs often enough. Other than an occasional closing at a downtown title company, or a performance at the Pikes Peak Center, we just don't go that much. Yesterday we were in the mood for a little walk, and decided to go downtown to Monument Vally Park for our exercise. It was so pleasant! Things are greening up nicely, and Monument Creek was flowing, albeit a little low for May. We finished the outing with a light supper at the Phantom Canyon Brewing Company, our favorite brewpub in the area. If you go, you have to try the smoked Gouda cheese soup. It's awesome!

This crane was looking for some fish I think. Rumor is he hangs out daily. The buildings are at Colorado College, a great little liberal arts school of about 3,000 students that borders the park. they are most famous for their national ranked hockey team, and were all set up for graduation, and the architecture is very interesting. Our daughters used to skate at their ice rink, and it brough back some great memories of walking in the park in the early morning while they practiced.

After 16 years of selling real estate in Colorado Springs, I am amazed regularly at how much I still am learning. This morning we had a RE/MAX Properties North office “marketing forum” meeting, and one of the regular topics is “lessons learned”. There were a couple of pretty good ones that I thought I would share here:
1. If a VA appraisal comes in low, the underwriter at the lender actually has a 3% discretionary buffer.
2. If a house is zoned for horses, has horses on the property, and is surrounded by horse properties, it does not mean that you can actually run horses. This is because the well permit may still not allow it, and the state water board can come in after the fact and enforce the well permit restrictions. Standard “household” well permits do NOT allow horses. The state Division of Water Resources has a look up facility for permits.
3. Habitat for Humanity has a new project in school district 20 near Woodmen and Tutt Blvd that is going to be a small area of homes that will actually be built by contractors, not by the homeowners. The first homes are in process. See http://www.pikespeakhabitat.org
for more information about this great work, how to qualify for a Habitat home, and the new homes they are going to build.
4. Habitat runs a facility called the ReStore that sounds like sort of a Goodwill store for building materials. This could be a great source for people who are remodeling on a budget. One our agents mentioned buying $1800 worth of brand new windows for $350. Proceeds go to Habitat for Humanity operations. They also take donations of leftover building materials and used materials.

What does the average house in Colorado Springs look like? According to last months sales statistics, it was priced at $239,578, had 2,468 square feet (including the basement), 2,173 were finished. Oh yeah, and it had been for sale for 115 days before getting a contract. I happened to have listed a house this past week that is really close to the averages (although as a brand new listing, it has not been on the market for the average time for sure!). This house, located at 8261 Dolly Madison in the Fairfax area of Briargate, is priced a little below the average at $232,500. It also has a lot of upgrades and updates that are not as common at this price, such as brand new windows, new carpeting, new kitchen floor, new countertops etc, and even has a nice Peak view from the master bedroom. You can view a Virtual Tour here.

The Spring weather has really been nice. It was just a week ago it snowed, but it has been more seasonal all week since, with a little rain mixed with the beautiful sunny mornings we are used to in the summers here. It has been really dry for this time of year, we could use more rain.

Mother's Day weekend is shaping up to be a nice one, with cool and rain on Saturday, but sun all day on Sunday. Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers out there! We are planning a breakfast out on Sunday morning for ours, and our daughter at CSU in Fort Collins even plans to be here!

Buying a house with little down is still pretty easy in Colorado Springs. It is true that there are some programs that are no longer offered, like the old “80-20” 100% financing, along with “stated” income loans and other “sketchy” financing tools. Conventional financing for 80, 90 and even 95% loan to value has not changed a lot, although conventional programs now cost a little more if your credit score is below 720. But low down payment financing is still pretty readily available and here are some of the ways we currently do it.
1. VA. The Veterans Administration has been guaranteeing loans for active duty and honorably discharged members of the military since after WWII, and with zero down payment. This is particularly attractive for the 1st time homebuyer, since fees are a bit lower with 1st time use.
2. FHA. These are government guaranteed loans, for civilians. This program now goes up to $325,000 loan amount in El Paso County (which covers almost 4000 homes for sale as of 5-6-08, or 2/3 of our market!), requires only 3% down, and can be combined with down payment assistance programs such as CHAFA, gifts from relatives, or even Nehemiah gift down payment assistance programs to make this type of loan possible with as little as $0 (ZERO!) of the borrowers own funds (depending on the program). Moreover, it allows the borrower to make payments as high as 43% of their GROSS income, and does not strictly rely on FICO scores (though a 620 FICO seems to help). This type of loan will likely increase in popularity for a while.
3. My Community loans. These loans can go up to 97% of the purchase, and depending on circumstance can go as low as a 580 credit score. You have to make less than $66,000 as a family to get in on this in El Paso County, and it is designed for lower to mid income levels with OK credit.
4. Flex 97. This is essentially 3% down conventional financing, and with higher FHA loan limits, is not really as popular as it used to be. Still, when you consider that to rent a house for $1500 a month costs almost $4500 to move in to begin with (1st months rent, last months rent, plus deposit), for the little bit extra cash, you may as well own a place, right? And your first payment can be due almost 2 months away depending on when you close.

Need some help to figure out what makes sense for you? Call Dana Hines at Colorado Online Mortgage 719-955-3670 to figure out what program makes the most sense for you!

Preliminary sales figures for April '08 Colorado Springs homes show sales of 773 units, down 13.7% from April of last year. Prices also remain soft, with the average price at $240,497, down 4.8% from last April. Inventory was up, with almost 6200 single family units for sale, still not quite a 6% increase from last April, so not bad overall. Foreclosures are still hurting us - there were 480 last month again. The high end is still taking a beating as well, only 5.6% of our sales (43) were over $500k.
I am working on a bank owned property right now, and it is amazing to me to see how slow they work. We have been waiting over a week just to get a final signed contract so that the buyers can lock in their loan. With service this bad, it is no wonder people have difficulty working out options with their lender, or why it takes so long for the inventory of bank owned homes to clear.

Colorado Springs has a love-hate relationship with school test scores. They love them when the news is good, or when they assist in making a good school decision, and hate them when they are bad. The Gazette released the unofficial 3rd grade reading CSAP test scores in this morning's paper, and as usual, it was a somewhat mixed bag. The top 3 main districts were once again 38 (Lewis Palmer) at 90%, 12 (Cheyenne Mountain) at 89% and 20 (Academy) at 87%. Manitou (14) at 84% and Woodland Park at 84% also did very well, but aren't really very big districts.

I will admit that I am into the numbers a bit. The state average is 70% of 3rd graders are proficient readers. All of the area's main districts were at or above the state average, except Harrison, D2, which was only 59% reading proficient. That means in a class of 25 3rd graders, roughly 10 kids were not proficient readers. That compares with D20, 12 or 38 where the proficiency levels are all around 87- 90% where only 2 or 3 kids would not be proficient readers.
In the larger districts, what is striking, is how much disparity can exist between schools. District 11 (Colorado Springs) has schools ranging from 95% proficient (way to go Madison, huge jump!) to a low of Rogers Elementary school at only 51%. D11 had 12 schools with proficiency above 80%! Harrison D2 saw a high of 85% at Wildflower Elementary, and low of 25% at Monterey Elementary (a huge drop from last year). Interestingly enough, there were only 3 schools above the state average in D2, and 5 that were at or below 50%.
A good friend of ours, Jim Kretchman (who is considered with his wife Mary the co- founder of the Classical Academy in D20 and founders of Preschool Partners) is fond of saying something along the lines of "there is really no such thing as 'the best' school, only 'the best' school for your child". I guess the same can be said about school districts.

Springtime in the Rockies is when summer and winter collide, and that was most apparent in Colorado Springs in the last 24 hours. After a balmy 75 or so yesterday, it is snowing at present. The sun started to come out for a brief interlude this morning, and I caught this shot from our RE/Max Properties offices. Pikes Peak was trying to appear for a moment, but was soon hidden once again by snow. This won't stick, and it has been quite dry, so the moisture is very welcome.

They think yesterday's rate decrease by the Fed might be the last one (maybe this is the last snow for the year?) It might take more than interest rate cuts to get housing back on it's feet.

Just when you think the worst is over, another new wrinkle gets thrown in. Yesterday we had a deal almost crash because the lender announced the property was in a "declining value neighborhood" and they wanted an extra 5% down to do the deal. From what I understand, most of the country has had trouble with soft prices, and such actions just further exacerbate an already difficult climate to do business. Fortunately the buyer could meet the requirement if they choose, and we found another lender that could do the deal (albeit at a higher rate), but it sure makes things more interesting than they really need to be! Government loans are not affected by this (yet!), and this sort of thing may put some pressure on the owners of foreclosure properties to recondition prior to putting them back on the market, instead of the typical "as is, where is" stuff they like to do, so they can qualify them for FHA or VA financing.

How many tourists visit Colorado Springs every year? I would have guessed about 2 million, but the Experience Colorado Springs at Pikes Peak folks (aka Convention and Visitors Bureau) say it is 3 times that, at 6 million. In fact, they say that 2 million visit Garden of the Gods alone. Now I don’t really know how you would count all of that, given that GOG is a free city park, and many of us go, park, hang out or hike, and leave, without every telling anyone we were there, so maybe 2 million is a guess, but still, that is a lot of visitors to a city park in a town of less than 600,000! There are of course some other places that are even more touristy kinds of places, like Seven Falls, the Pikes Peak summit, the Air Force Academy chapel, Cave of the Winds, Manitou Cliff Dwellings, the Cripple Creek casinos, etc that they estimate at no more than 1/3 the traffic that Garden of the Gods sees. And some tourists don’t actually do any of that, and instead just hang out, go downtown, go hiking in the national forest, take day trips to other mountain towns, golf, fish, gamble in Cripple Creek, etc. Colorado Springs began as a resort, and I guess that it is fitting that we still get so many visitors. After all, what better place to visit?
We may have a few extra visitors at the Air Force Academy this year, in part due to President Bush being the keynote speaker at graduation on May 28. The tickets are all gone already :-( The Broadmoor is also hosting the Men's Senior Open this year, which should further boost the visitor count.
Visiting may get easier, or harder soon, depending on who you use for frequent flier miles. I know many people drive to their summer vacations, but flying is pretty important, and I found it so ironic that within a month or so of announcing flights to the Springs and a new maintenance hanger here, Frontier Airlines goes Chapter 11. I have been a fan of Frontier, and I was really saddened by the news. They actually started service as scheduled on April 15, and they say the bankruptcy won’t change anything, but we’ll see. The new merger between Delta and Northwest should prove interesting. It should theoretically open some better routing up for the Springs, but again, we’ll see. United is the “big dog” at the Colorado Springs airport, and despite most of their routes simply going through Denver from here, they will probably continue to be the number 1 carrier.

What you can expect when buying distressed properties in Colorado Springs (ie short sales, pre-foreclosures, foreclosures, bank owned, etc) is both more and less than you bargained for. Less money, there are some great deals out there. Less amenities (the sprinklers may not work, the A/C compressor may be gone, along with the stove!). More headaches, angst, problems, etc. And possibly more sweat equity and return on investment. I worked some folks this week in the "under $150" category, and thought I would share a few things.
1. In this price, we did not used to see much at all, and I was pleasantly surprised by both the quantity, and in some cases even the quality of what we saw. There were definitely some "dogs" out there however, with foundation problems, water issues, etc. Houses are not always large in this segment, and almost all of them needed something to be done after closing, generally in the $10k plus category.
2. The water is off in virtually all of bank owned (and other vacant) homes right now, meaning there will be some additional expense for de-winterizing the property, and some nervousness when the water first comes back on for possible leaks. A broken pipe inside the walls can really be a mess to clean up, but if you don't get that sort of thing looked at, the problems can be even bigger.
3. We did not see a lot of badly gutted homes this time, but I have seen them where even the light fixtures are gone, along with appliances, cabinets, etc. On the property they selected, the stove, some cabinets, and most of the carpet was gone.
4. The response time from the bank that owned the house they wrote on was surprisingly quick. Many will tell you right up front that they need several days, and with short sales, it can be weeks. Bank owned properties are usually 2 or 3 round negotiations, and sometimes more.
5. The match between the house and the buyer should be right, and it was gratifying to see that this particular buyer was very knowledgeable on the particular things this house needed, making it a good fit.
6. Out of state banks don't really pay much attention to our contracts, and have all kinds of forms, addendums etc that are not really "buyer friendly", shortening inspection and other contingency deadlines, etc. That does not make them bad, but it is something to be prepared for.
7. Have your lending situation nailed down tight before you start. These kinds of properties don't give much time to "fool around" with getting your loan situated.
8. They like quick closes, so expect to close in 30 days or less, or else wait before you shop.
9. Don't expect to use a government loan (ie VA or FHA) for your financing. Many of these properties are neglected to the point where they will not pass muster for a VA or FHA inspection. Keep some cash on hand for doing the repairs, that is not so easily financed.
10. Don't expect the owner to fix anything. These are pretty much all "as is" deals, and sometimes that will not only mean you have to do the fixes yourself, but in some cases, you mght want to stay in a motel until the fixes are done!

Colorado Springs school districts are something that people ask about a lot, because there are so many of them. The big 8 are Lewis Palmer D38, Academy D20, Colorado Springs D11, Falcon D49, Harrison D2, Cheyenne Mountain D12, Widefield D3, and Fountain Fort Carson D8. In addition, there are charter schools within some of these districts that are like mini-school districts of there own. In D20, The Classical Academy has close to 3,000 students, 3 elementary schools, and a wait list of 6,000 students or so. In D49, there are 2 separate charter school systems just on the classical education theme alone (Rocky Mountain Charter Academy and the new The Imagine Classical Academy). Also in D49, the Banning-Lewis Ranch is building charter schools for neighborhood schools.
So the question can be, where will MY kids go to school. It isn't as simple as it sounds, because as neighborhoods grow, sometimes the neighborhood school is full for certain grades for a while. This has happened many times over the years, especially in D20 and Northeastern D11. It has happened in the past that a family can buy a house across the street from the school, and when they go to enroll, discover their child will be bussed to an overflow school until a space opens up. Usually this is temporary (1 school year or less), but not always. And changing schools is never fun, causing some families to leave the busing situation alone once their child is settled in.
All this to say, that no matter what school DISTRICT your are in, it is a good idea to check out what actual school your child will be attending. It may not be the one the next door!

The end of ski season is always a little sad, but yesterday's closing day at Breckenridge was really great. The antelope were out in numbers in South Park, and I saw a fox practically in the parking lot at the ski area. There was a lot of snow for this being the end of the season, and I was a little sorry I got there as early as I did, because in the warmer weather, it needs a little time to soften up after the freeze / thaw cycle. Coming home to 75 degree weather was nice, but it was a little weird to change into shorts! The view from the top of Wilkerson Pass of the west side of Pikes Peak is always a tempting photo, so here it is again.

Is today the last snow day of the year for Colorado Springs? Technically it was just a 2 hour late start, so not really a true snow day, but as spring progresses, the odds start dropping that we'll see any more of this until next winter. The sun was already coming through when I took this in our back yard this morning. A pretty typical Colorado Springs snow, it does it's thing, and the sun comes back out. 60's and maybe even 70 by the weekend! It really didn't even stick to the roads here in Briargate, but D20 serves a big chunk of Black Forest as well, and the little change in locale seems to make a difference as to how much sticks to the roads, in addition to how much falls to begin with. District 38 is even farther north, and often they will have a late start or cancellation, even when D20 does not. D11, which covers most of the Springs area wise, seldom has to close or have a late start, because it is just enough lower in elevation that it may not even have snowed at all. District 49, which covers the eastern plains as well as part of Black Forest, will often have problems from wind blown snow and visibility, even if the snow is not deep.

My wife is a school teacher in school district 20 (The Classical Academy), and she loves a late start or snow day as much as the kids. Today was a good illustration as to why field trips are tough to schedule though. Her kindergarten class does an annual trip to Garden of the Gods, and it was rescheduled from last week to this past Tuesday, which turned out to be a fantastic day to do it. Today however, would not have been a good one! I guess it encourages living for the day, because you really don't know what tomorrow will bring, especially with our fickle spring weather!

We don't often talk about wildfires and snow in the same day in Colorado Springs, but here we are with a 10,000 acre brush fire burning at Fort Carson, and snow coming down. The fire started yesterday afternoon, and we could see the smoke pretty clearly up north, 20 miles away or so. One air born firefighter was killed when his plane crashed after dumping slurry on the blaze. It is such dangerous work, I am amazed and thankful it doesn't happen more often. Brush fires or grass fires on Fort Carson aren't really that rare (they do some controlled burns to minimize the risk of large fires), but one this size is, and it is already being called the largest in the county's history according to the sheriff.
The warmth of yesterday accompanied by the high winds of spring weather changes undoubtedly contributed to the rapid spread of this one. Thankfully the newly arrived cold and snow should help douse before it gets any bigger, and hopefully no one else gets hurt fighting it. Cold and wet snowy weather are expected to hang around into tomorrow.

It isn't a record, but I think 80 degrees is on the warm side for tax day in Colorado Springs. It was a perfect chance to get the hot tub drained, cleaned a refilled, and the warm dry sun felt very good. Rain and snow are in the forecast for the next couple of days, so we'll enjoy it while we can!
Speaking of tax day, I thought I would plug one of the tax benefits of owning a home. The obvious interest deduction is the one most discussed, but actually the tax free gain on the sale of your home is sometimes more important. This is because the way the tax tables work these days, sometimes using the standard deduction instead of itemizing is the best thing anyway, depending on the situation.
The tax free sale is generally interesting for everyone (current recession excepted), because even when homes are appreciating slowly, in the long run they are still appreciating, and when you sell, it is one of the few things you don't get taxed on (with some limits, of course). A $200,000 house that eventually sells for $250,000 after 5 years or so may have a $50,000 tax free gain on it. While you can often beat the appreciation rate with other investments, you usually cannot beat the leverage allowed (with only 3% down, this could be only a $6,000 investment!), and after taxes, that money is harder to match. Plus you get to live in it the whole time!

Only in Colorado Springs. Yesterday we woke up with snow on the ground from a little overnight snow shower, and I went golfing in 60+ degree weather in the afternoon. I had never played any of the of the military courses here, and had an opportunity to play the Silver Spruce at Peterson AFB. It was very nice, and the air traffic of the Colorado Springs Airport was a fun distraction from time to time. While I did not hit very well, we managed to get 18 holes in on the twilight special, and it was good exercise, if my sore muscles are any measure of that!
Speaking of Peterson (and Shriever), this morning's paper covered the new base housing projects going on at both. Shriever will finally have a couple of hundred homes, and Peterson will end up with around 600 after tearing down some, building some and renovating some.

I have an inspection today, and thought I would share a few notes about such things. In Colorado Springs, home inspectors are not licensed, but I only work with ones that are certified, usually by either ASHI (American Society of Home Inspectors) or NAHI (National Association of Home Inspectors), and that have errors and omissions insurance. I always attend home inspections for my buyers, because I want to hear what is said in case interpretation is needed in negotiating inspection issues. They are time consuming, but it has really helped in the past to be there, so I continue to do it.
Here, a typical home inspection is around $300, plus some additional services if desired, such as radon testing, water flow and/or potability testing (if the home is on a well), and sometimes we have to get additional inspectors involved if there are indications of mold, wood destroying insects (termites), or structural issues. It takes between 1 1/2 and 3 hours usually. I had an out of state client who said the inspector who came out when they sold their home, was only there for 20 minutes. That would be pretty impossible to do a proper job.
Generally radon testing is always a good idea. Radon is suspected as the #2 cause of lung cancer in the US, and while there are differences of opinion as to what the REAL limit should be for radon (the US EPA says 4 Pcl, in Canada they used to say 10, now it is 5), it is best if you know what you have before you just blow this off. Mitigation typically costs around $1,000 here.
We don't often run into mold, and the inspector will usually look for it to determine whether additional inspection or testing is done. The same applies to wood destroying insects. While termites are not very prevalent here, they do show up from time to time, especially in older neighborhoods where the trees have finally grown up.
Structural issues come up from time to time for a couple of reasons. We have some tricky soil conditions here. Sometimes the builder did not do things right, although this is more rare. Often, site drainage has been modified from what the builder had done, for landscaping usually, and it results in water coming in contact with expansive or poorly compacted soil, and this can create problems. We also have some hillside "creep zones", and even mine tunnels under the ground that can also wreak havoc. The areas most likely to have structural issues to watch for are west of I25, but they can happen almost anywhere.
The most common issues that come up on inspection reports are roof problems (previously undetected hail damage), electrical issues (usually homeowner done), furnace cleaning and servicing, bathroom grout issues and site drainage. The purpose of the inspection is really for the buyer to understand the true condition of the house at closing, so that they know what their "honey do" list will look like. The list of things the seller normally takes care of fall into the category of "safe, sound and sanitary". If any of these areas is affected, we typically ask the seller to take care of it. In Colorado, the inspection clause of the real estate contract is one of the most important contingencies. A buyer can terminate the contract for any inspection issue they choose.
Finally, a shameless plug for my favorite home inspector, Randy Morrow at Hawkeye Home Inspections. He does a great job, has inspected hundreds of homes for my clients, and I trust him completely. His number is 719-330-9821, and he does pre-inspections for sellers in addition to "due diligence" homes inspections for buyers.

Colorado Springs has some really nice home available in the 600's. I showed a bunch of them this week, and the one that the buyer selected was close to 5,000 square feet on 2.5 acres, 2 years old, and had WONDERFUL views.
The ones they did not select were very, very nice as well. One was on almost 6 acres in High Forest Ranch, in the trees. One was on 2.5 acres on the golf course in Kings Deer (really great views on that one!). Another was on 2.5 acres just minutes from the Powers shopping corridor. Bottom line, there is great selection in that price range right now! Here is a link to a couple of them:Some Nice $650,000 homes
This particular client was not looking for horse or looser covenanted properties, but this link is to one my listings for $659,900 that has a fantastic set of outbuilding, 5 treed acres, and a very nice 5,000 sf stucco ranch style home. 7115 Wildridge Road
The weather has turned decidedly winter like. After waking up to fog yesterday, it cleared up a bit, followed by rain, then thunder, then snow, and this morning, snow and wind. While it is not snowing a lot (less than an inch fell here), the wind makes it look and feel more like January than April!
This weekend is pretty much the end of ski season, despite great quantities of snow. Breckenridge will remain open until the following weekend, they are still report close to a 7 foot base, with this storm expected to drop another foot or so.

High end home sales in Colorado Springs are taking a disproportional beating in this recession. In doing a little number crunching, I was surprised to discover that while sales overall are still down 19% over last year's disappointing results, sales over $500,000 are down 42.3% from the 1st quarter of '07. While I pick the $500k mark somewhat arbitrarily, the fact is, only 4.4% of our sales exceeded that price in the 1st quarter (it was over 6% last year), so it makes a logical "line in the sand".
Today's "rain and snow" forecast has not shown up, and while it is not out of the question that it still might, it is not surprising if it misses us completely. The weather forecasters in Colorado Springs have one of the most difficult jobs in the world, with so many mountains sitting just west of us, slight changes in pressure make huge differences as to whether we see snow, or sun!

Preliminary Colorado Springs real estate sales data for March show a continued strong buyers market. Here are some of the early statistics. These are obviously subject to revision when the Pikes Peak Association Realtors releases official reports by Monday of next week, but these should be very close:
Sales 722 homes, down 19% from March of '07
Average (Mean) Price $236,514 down 7.2% from March of '07
Inventory 5883 up 3.9% over March of '07
Foreclosure / Short sale transactions represented about 25.6% of sales, and about 11.5% of the existing inventory, down slightly from January and February.
In addition, the Gazette reports this morning that foreclosure filings were 488, a record month. Things have not turned around yet!

Colorado Springs got some good news on the economic front in this morning's Gazette. The 1st was kind of expected, the US Olympic Committee is expected to accept the city's proposal to keep them here for another 25 years. The USOC, the Olympic Training Center, and the associated National Governing Bodies are kind of a big deal, and it is a relief to get this negotiation out of the way.
The 2nd piece of good news was a little surprising, and was tempered by some offsetting news. Job growth was surprisingly strong, and they said we have added 7000 jobs in the last year, or 1.9%. The offsetting news was that unemployment was actually up, to 5.5%. Who knows how good these figures could have been if we were back on a decent pace of home sales and bulding?
This may be a result of "trailing spouses" (my own theory) adding jobhunters to the pool. Many of the military families who come here (although this is not a "military only" issue), and a higher percentage of the less senior ranks, are 2 income families. When a soldier is transferred to Ft Carson (or Peterson AFB, Shriever SFB, Cheyenne Mtn or the Air Force Academy), their spouse often has to seek employment in the local economy, enlarging the potential work force. Ft Carson is in a growth spurt for a while, so employment and unemployment may both continue to grow.

While March is not the prettiest month of the year in Colorado Springs, it does offer some of the greatest variety in the weather, and Pikes Peak is always a bright white against the blue skies. The grass will be brown for a little while yet, although it has been above freezing overnight for at least a few nights, so maybe it will start to green up a little? The weather has taken a decidedly springtime turn, and we have been enjoying the 60+ degree days. I even hit a bucket of golf balls this week, in hopes of actually getting some time to golf this year. Pine Creek Golf course seemed fairly busy.

This shot was taken a block or 2 from the golf course, about a month ago, at the park in front of Mt View Elementary in Pine Creek.

Easter usually marks the beginning of Spring in my mind. Since Daylight Savings, Easter, and the Vernal Equinox all came in the same week this year, I guess we have to believe it is really here, but the yesterday the weather was a little confusing, although a bit typical of Colorado Springs this time of year. We headed to church with a fresh blanket of snow, and a coating of ice on the roads, but today is supposed to back into the 60's. It is so much easier to look at houses, and even to list them, when the snow is gone!
We sometimes joke about "For Sale" signs sprouting with the crocuses, or daffodils, or tulips, depending on the year. This year, I can't say I've seen any flowers sprouting up yet, but the inventory of unsold homes is starting to grow. At 5882 homes for sale as of today, 3-24-08, I am guessing we will break the 6,000 homes mark this week. Nationally, the National Association of REALTORS says that sales of existing homes actually increased in February, and while that did not happen here, I believe it will. With these great interest rates and increasing rents, people have to live somewhere!

While I was skiing yesterday, the Federal Reserve dropped interest rates again. This sure can't hurt. I'd like to think that we are finally where we need to be on such things, but I kind of doubt it. What would help OUR industry is a stable period of mortgage rates in the mid 5's, but they never ask me :-)

The snow was great at Breckenridge. Spring break is starting across the country, and it was busy, with people from about everywhere you can think of. Here in Colorado Springs, spring breaks are staggered a bit, and while CSU is out this week, D20 and Pikes Peak Community College have theirs next week. There was almost 2 feet of new snow in the last week, including 5 inches the night before, so it was great. I really needed the break, I think I had not had a real day off in 2 or 3 weeks. The season only has 1 month left, and this is often my favorite month to ski. We get the most sno