The Colorado Rockies baseball team is making some interesting entertainment at the end of the season this year, with a 10 game winning streak and only 1 game back from the wild card, and 2 games back from the NL West title. Perhaps just as exciting is ending the season with a home stand against the current division leaders.
Baseball is relative newcomer to Denver (the Rockies came in 1993), but Colorado Springs has had a AAA team (the Sky Sox, now the Rockies Triple A farm club) for a bit longer. After a really strong start, major league baseball had kind of lost some interest here for a while, but with a resurgence like this one, I think Rockies tickets will gain in popularity again. Coors Field is really a great place to watch a game, and only an hour away, it is yet another reason why this is such a great place to live!

Peak fall color has arrived at the higher elevations around Pikes Peak! This is at the trailhead to Rampart Reservoir, taken just yesterday. We have had a pretty mild fall, and as a result the colors are actually running a little behind normal. It looks like maybe we'll be seeing them into early October, unless a big windy storm knocks them down early (which often happens!). The shot below is highway 67 a few miles north of Cripple Creek. This is a pretty popular route for leaf watchers, I was surprised how many people were pulled over taking pictures and otherwise enjoying a beautiful (but cool) Tuesday afternoon. It started pretty overcast in the morning in the Springs, and I had kind of thought it would not be very busy.

For those of you who don't live here, Cripple Creek is about and hour from the Springs, and is more famous as one of the 3 legal gambling towns in Colorado than as any kind of mountain resort. It was an idea to help revitalize some dying towns, and it has worked to a certain extent, though the character of the town has changed dramatically as a result.
In town, it still looks like summer, but these last several nights have been a lot cooler, so maybe ours will start soon as well. The downtown in particular is quite pretty in the fall as the large deciduous trees start to turn. In the mountains, it is pretty much just the aspens, although you can see they get a beautiful gold color.

It has been disappointing to see mortgage rates trickle up a bit since the Fed announcement last week. Rates are still at around 6.375%, but before the rate cut, they were at about 6.125%. Mortgage rates tend to be affected more by inflation expectations than direct action by the Fed on short term rates, we'll see if this holds. Other than gasoline and food prices, inflation has been pretty quiet, and neither housing or automobile prices look like they are going anywhere soon.
Locally, showing activity has actually picked up a bit, our own office was up 18% over the prior week, so who knows, maybe we will start turning this corner yet!
We spent part of Sunday visiting our daughter up at CSU in Fort Collins. We picked the right day, as the Broncos lost anyway, and it was pretty pleasant weather for the 2 hour drive. I like to visit Fort Collins, it has that nice small "college town" feel, and the big trees around the campus kind of remind me of my own college days. For a big school (25,000 students), CSU seems very "approachable", and we have been very pleased our daughter chose it. The menu of colleges and universities here is really pretty good. Locally, Colorado College, University of Colorado Colorado Springs and Pikes Peak Community College are all pretty well thought of. The University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado State in Fort Collins and University of Northern Colorado in Greeley are all popular state school options, and the School of Mines in Golden is very popular among the engineering crowd. There is a also a plethora of smaller state schools and private colleges and universities throughout Colorado.

I like to walk in the morning after I take care of the first hour or 2 of business. It's good for me, and I get to see the beauty of my surroundings for a little bit at the same time, not a bad deal. I never bring a camera (or cell phone for that matter!), but this morning I just had to snap a couple of pictures at nearby Stone Park (next to the Briargate YMCA) to share the moment. In addition to the neighboring YMCA, Starbucks is a short block, the skate park is quite popular, and the fields and shelter always seem to get used. This is practically right across the street from the new Memorial Hospital, which should have the same views (or even better from 6 floors up!) The panorama is really a bit special, as you can see about a 40 mile section from south of Pikes Peak to Monument.
The weather has been warm (80's) and dry, but it was a bit breezy today, and they say we'll get back to a more normal pattern in a couple of days (60's and 70's is really more typical for the beginning of fall).

I have to confess that sometimes I read what is going on the rest of the country, and get a little confused. Today I saw that the government is considering "temporarily" allowing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (quasi governmental investment in mortgage loans) to increase their loan limits over the current $417,000 to allow more purchases and refinances in the higher price ranges. Keep in mind, that is the loan limit, which is the equivalent of a $521,000 purchase with 20% down. I guess I am just so used to living in a market that has SO much choice in the ranges below that, I forget how many people in this country live in places like the Bay Area, where this is considered "affordable" housing. As an FYI, I just did a quick check, and at least here, 85% of the inventory of homes for sale are below that $521,000 mark, almost 6000 homes.

This mornings paper mentioned fall colors are starting even on Pike Peak. I love the fall, and the colors are really pretty here against our blue skies. This web site is from last year (and is not mine), but I thought some of you might enjoy what is here: http://www.autumn-pictures.com/

Last fall here in the Springs, we had an incredible early snow storm in late October, this picture in my front yard was a bit different look than the one at top, taken in the first week of October of 2005 on Boreas Pass Road near Breckenridge.

The Colorado Springs Economic Development Corporation does a great job promoting the city for business. In their latest newsletter they included a link to the new University Village retail development at Nevada and I25, and I have to say I am impressed at how large this is going to be. They are mentioning Costco, Lowes, Petsmart and Kohls (although I don't see the Kohls building labelled in the diagrams) as anchor tenants. This will be a large development! We've all been waiting for the freeway to get finished so they could get this thing going. Hopefully it won't be delayed substantially past the Summer 2008 schedule shown on the web site, but this looks like it will be a very nice addition to the shopping landscape, and a nice replacement for some of the blighted motels that used to be spread along this ection of North Nevada.

The Federal Reserve finally cut the funds rate. My take? It is about time. When September 11 hit, the government did a pretty good job moving to get interest rates down so the whole economy wouldn't implode, and it worked. But when things started to come back to life just a little, they all started running around yelling "inflation" like fire in the theater, and the resulting steady march upward of rates is part of the reason so many are now in trouble on their adjustable mortgages. This is not the place for (nor am I the guy to write!) an economic dissertation on the relationship between interest rates and inflation, but I would like to observe a couple of things that are relevant to the Colorado Springs real estate market from this.

1. Look for some additional easing of mortgage rates, maybe dare we say, below 6%? The funds rate at the Fed is not measured in lockstep with mortgages, but generally lower rates at the Fed seem to find their way into the rest of the economy. This will help the real estate market absorb some of the excess inventory that now plagues us, and maybe even break loose a few more new builds.
2. Look for the upcoming HUD refinancing program to help some, but not all owners who have adjustable rate mortgages. Some of these folks aren't in trouble because the rate has jumped, but because the assumptions they made relative to their own paychecks have not materialized, and the "HUD bailout" program probably won't help them. It will probably help lower some of the key indices that adjustable mortgages are tied to, not an all bad side effect.
3. Look for some wider latitude coming in new FHA loans, with higher loan limits in particular helping supply more choice in financing vehicles.
4. Don't expect this to be any kind of instant fix to the current slow real estate market. This will help, but by itself is not going to be enough. In Colorado Springs at least, bringing some of our boys home from Iraq will actually have a more immediate impact, by creating some demand for housing. That and a few good civilian employment announcements, and we'll be good as new!

It was a wild weekend for Bronco fans this week, what a way to end both the first AND second games of the season! This is not a sports blog, and I won't devote a lot of space to it, but they are making these games way too exciting for my tastes. Hopefully as Jay Cutler gets settled down as a rookie quarterback, these won't get so close, because the offense seems to really be clicking when they are on, they are just still a little mistake prone.
This should be an interesting week in the housing market as well, with the Federal Reserve supposedly poised to make a rate reduction. While it won't automatically convert to a mortgage rate reduction, I like the idea that the Fed is finally taking the housing crunch seriously.
Locally, we finally edged back under 7000 active listings this weekend, partially because many spring listings finally expired, and not as many of them came back on market. We'll see how it plays out.

Who says you can’t buy a house in Colorado Springs? The media would have you think that the entire lending industry has gone into bankruptcy, and that the result of the “sub prime” crisis is going to be that no one can get a loan, and that everyone who has a loan can’t make the payments. NOT TRUE!
First of all, the only loan programs that are really affected by all this sub prime business, are ones that rely on stated income. That means that you have to prove that you can make the payments now, where in the recent past, with decent credit, down payment, etc, you could basically “make up” the amount of income you had. Unemployed, or newly self employed are the ones most affected by this. Secondly, programs made for true credit risks (recent bankruptcy, recent late payments, etc) are still available, but with stricter guidelines or down payment requirements.
Having said that, here are a couple of “tried and true” programs we’ve always (or almost always) had to work with, that had fallen into disuse for a while. Keep in mind these are CIVILIAN programs, VA has been doing ZERO down loans since the end of WWII and continues to be a great option for active duty or former members of the military.
1. FHA. That’s right, good old government guaranteed loans. This program (FHA)goes up to $247,000 loan amount in El Paso County, requires only 3% down, but 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 41% of their GROSS income, and does not strictly rely on FICO scores (though a 620 FICO seems to help). Still think we don’t have sub prime loans?
2. My Community loans. These loans can go up to 100% 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 (but it sure sounds like a sub prime loan to me!)
3. Flex 97. OK, this is not sub prime, because you may have to have a little better credit for this one, but 3% down conventional financing sounds like a fairly easy program to me. 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.

As of today (9/14/07), there are almost 3500 homes in Colorado Springs that are under $250,000 (about half the homes for sale), and almost 1900 of these even have at least 3 beds, 2 baths, and a 2 garage. I think many of you could buy one! If one of these loan programs sounds like it might fit your situation, check with Dana Hines at Colorado Online Mortgage 719-593-8778 for current rates and other program details.

Foreclosure, foreclosure prevention, and short pay sales are hot topics these days in our business in general, and in Colorado Springs in particular. Here are a few things that seemed useful to pass along from a class today held by RE/MAX Properties.
1. According to RealtyTrac, Colorado now has the 2nd highest rate of foreclosure for the number households we have, following only Nevada for the dubious distinction of #1, but joining California, Michigan and Florida in the top 5.
2. Allegedly, we have 6,079 homes in some level of the foreclosure process in Colorado. Locally, about 40% of those never go to foreclosure sale.
3. Colorado law will change quite a bit as of January 1, 2008, eliminating the redemption period, but extending the cure period. This will make it somewhat easier to buy foreclosure properties, since the borrower will no longer be able to come back in and redeem after the sale.
4. Most foreclosure auctions do not result in competitive bidding, because the 1st position lender who is foreclosing is usually owed too high a percentage of the fair market value of the property. Investors who bid at auction are typically looking for a 25 - 35% spread between what is owed and what the fair market value is, and that is not common, since usually the seller is highly motivated to try and sell it before it gets that far if there is that much equity.
5. Short pay negotiations are usually not effective unless:
a. The seller is not worth pursuing for collection (ie no other assets and little income)
b. The loan is already in default
c. A contract for sale has already been reached that is contingent on the lender accepting the short pay
d. The buyer has patience and can afford to wait around for answers from the lender
e. The seller has someplace to go
6. It is extremely important for sellers in foreclosure who believe they can either cure or redeem their property to timely file the appropriate Notice of Intent to Cure or Redeem by the deadlines, or they can lose very important rights, and possibly their home.
Obviously this is a big topic and warranted a whole class even for us, but these seemed like some useful things for others to know, so I thought I'd share!

We visited the Flying W Ranch for the dinner show Saturday night to celebrate my sister in law's birthday. It was great fun, and boy can those guys play! I've always enjoyed this particular local attraction as a true "western feeling experience", and once again it did not disappoint.

Speaking of not disappointing, the Broncos pulled it out in the final seconds on Sunday, what a nailbiter that was! I am a football fan, I'll make no excuses or apologies for it. I don't get time to follow college ball too well, but I do love the NFL. It is only about an hour's drive to Mile High (Invesco) and this year is particularly interesting with it being Jay Cutlers real debut as the new starting quarterback. It wasn't the best game we'll ever see, but it was exciting.

The weather has really changed. It is cool and gray today, rain in the forecast and breezy. It is the first morning I remember since spring that the temperature was below 50, so fall is giving us a little preview. I like the variety.

Saturday I showed property in the $150's. It had been a little while since I had shown in that price range (the median has been closer to $225 for some time), and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality. We saw several fairly nice houses in the Cimmeron Hills area in particular.

This is hot off the press, the Colorado Springs real estate sales statistics have just been posted by the Pikes Peak Association of Realtors, and it is a little bleak.
1. Sales were down 21.1% from last August, at only 945 single family homes sold
2. Inventory was up 16.7% over last year at this time, already a somewhat glutted market
3. Prices were down 4.8% for the average (mean) single family home at $259,095 and the median (1/2 above, 1/2 below) was down 2.2% at $220,000.

The good news? Year to date sales were down only 15.2%, and prices were actually still up an average of 1.7% (the YTD mean was $262,848). Let's hope for a break on interest rates and some good local economic news to get us past this!

Colorado Springs land prices, especially for residential building, are often asked about. The lot shown is one that I just listed for $149,000 in Kings Deer, a golf course community in Monument (just north of Colorado Springs, about 30 minutes to the Denver Tech Center or downtown Colorado Springs). It is is the least expensive lot in the subdivision (the most expensive are in the $300's), and is a flag lot, 2.5 acres with a walkout to the north. The area in the immediate foreground is actually greenbelt and not part of the lot, and the lot extends to the left even further. This subdivision starts in the 500's, and and a lot at this price can be a way to get a custom home on a budget. Click here to a link for more details on this great property:

20353 Glasbury Rd

Land prices continue to rise, and the opportunity with the current building / real estate slump is that lots such as these are usually held by builders in hopes of landing a contract to build, but because many builders are hurting for cash flow, there are more of these types of lots than would normally be the case. Lot financing is still possible with many local lenders, hopefully that won't beccome an issue with overall real estate credit crunch.

Fall is my favorite month for golfing in Colorado Springs. Not because they aerate the courses, sand the greens and other obnoxious things, but because they are aren't as busy. I had a chance to take advantage of the afternoon special yesterday at Pine Creek. Admittedly the weather was looking a little sketchy, and we did have to take a rain / lightening delay before we finished our 18, but it played pretty fast even with the delay, and was both fun and really pretty. I will be the first to admit that we lost more golf balls than holes that we parred between us, but it was still great fun to be out.

Since August is officially over, some folks are probably wondering how the Colorado Springs homes sales statisitics looked. The official statistics are due out later in the week, but it would appear that the slowdown continues, with sales estimated to be approximately 18% below last August, at under 1000 units. The inventory continues at close to 7100 single family units available, although this will begin to shrink as the fall progresses and some sellers leave the market until next spring. Average (mean) price for August will be down between 4 and 5% over last August, at approximately $260,000, with the sale price / list price ratio running about 97.5%. I'll post the official numbers when they are available.

The weather was perfect for the ballon launch yesterday at the Colorado Springs Balloon Classic. Although we got there a little late for the actual launch, the wind was so still that scores of balloons were hanging around in the sky above, making for a surreal scene. We brought the grandkids, and they had ball. As a RE/MAX agent for the last 12 years, you can guess why I picked this shot, but there were lots of great picture taking opportunities.
It was a busy football day around the area as well. Air Force opened at home against South Carolina State and whooped 'em, and Colorado narrowly edged out Colorado State in their annual rivalry with an overtime field goal. Since money and my daughter both go to CSU, we are of course in mourning.