Like clockwork, a chance of rain or snow and cold are in the forecast for Colorado Springs Halloween again. It is the darndest thing, but it happens almost every year. And if the doesn't rain or snow on Halloween, it does within a few days before or after. Even the ski resorts tend to use the week of Halloween as their target opening (at least the ones with much snowmaking capability).
This week is also the week when the monthly real estate statistics normally come out. We are finally below 6600 units for sale in Colorado Springs, but that is not great, since sales for October will be around the 700 units mark, making for just under a 10 month supply of homes for sale. An article published today on Yahoo mentioned that lower interest rates will not help the current problems, but at least here, I kind of disagree. Lower rates should expand the pool of buyers, allowing some of this inventory to get sold and get us to more normal levels, and even allow some of those who need to sell because they are in trouble, a way to get out without going into foreclosure. The problem (as I see it), is that the rate cuts at the Fed are not trickling down to mortgages. The market is already assuming the 1/4 point cut will be made today, and mortgage rates are still at the same level they were before the first cut, if not slightly higher. I know there is an argument that qualifications, not rates, are keeping people out of the market, but I am not sure that is really the case.

Today the Fed is is predicted to drop rates again. The last time it had no affect whatsoever on mortgage rates, the stock market seemed like the main beneficiary, and it looks like this time may have the same result. We'll see if they even do it, let alone whether mortgage rates will drop.
Yesterday was an odd hazy day here, they say because of the fires in Southern California. Hopefully they will all be out pretty quick now, what a scary time for everyone there.
These Broncos are just good enough to keep you watching. Tough loss in overtime last night, but it should never have come to that, with plenty of blown scoring opportunities along the way. These games will build character, but it is pretty doubtful we'll be in the post season this year.

Well, it's over. The Rockies got swept. Not what I would have guessed, or hoped. But not the end of the world. For a team that in August barely had a pulse for getting into the playoffs, to have been there is an amazing thing. And as Manny Ramirez of the Red Sox said during the playoffs, there is always next year.
Most of the weekend housing news was kind of negative. Things like, "worst price decline since the Great Depression" are being said a lot these days. I guess my take is a bit different. Yes, things are not selling as quickly or for as much money as sellers would like. There are definitely some bargains out there. But this too shall pass. Like the stock market, declines only hurt you if you sell. If you don't need to sell, in our market, I tell people not to. And what great time to buy! This is really opportunity time, a chance to set the calendar back a couple of years in terms of prices. Such opportunities come along rarely, a lot of people will look back on this time as one they wished they had taken advantage of.
The week of Halloween, I must say I am a little surprised it is still shorts and tee shirt weather, at least in the middle of the day. It is supposed to cool down some later in the week, but this is pretty nice!

I had a couple of closings yesterday. These are fewer and farther between than I would like during our current downturn, but it felt good to be of genuine help to people, and I know my clients were very pleased with what they got.
The first couple came from California (retired), and closed on a new build that they originally contracted for in February. It had exceptional views and rear privacy, and they ordered with with a lot of the good stuff, such as stucco, 3 car garage, finished walk out basement, solid surface countertops, lots of hardwood, etc. Their house turned out gorgeous, and there are very few lots left with the kind of unobstructed views and setting this one had to offer. Contrary to popular belief, even though new construction is way down, we are still building thousands of homes, and the builders are not "giving away the store" to get people to have a house built. The only builder "giveaways" have been on completed new construction they did not have buyers for ("spec" homes), and those are usually not on such prime lots as this one was.
The 2nd was a first time homebuyer who bought a great 1960 built resale home in a terrific area near Palmer Park . He will be doing quite a bit of renovation to the house, but it was a very attractive deal when all was said and done, including using El Paso County bond money for down payment assistance, and seller paid closing costs, allowing him to keep his cash for doing the fixups. He got his entire $500 earnest money check back at closing! Best of all, he is an avid mountain biker, and the house is only 2 blocks from the entrance to Palmer Park where some of the best mountain biking trails anywhere are located! The seller came down over 10% from the asking price on this one including closing cost assistance, to give an idea of how hungry some our sellers are. This home was not a foreclosure or short sale either.
The Rockies will get a chance to redeem themselves this weekend. They seemed to have settled down a bit (it was really quite a good game last night I thought), and some home field support will do them good.

I guess the Rockies should be over any World Series jitters they might have had. It doesn't get much worse than 13-1 in the opener, hopefully they'll settle down now and take care of business.

This morning's paper mentioned that the Colorado Springs Airport is doing very well again, and this years travellers may hit a 6 year high as a result of Express Jet and Midwest Airlines starting service here. Access for air travel is pretty important to a lot of people these days, both for business and for family access. You can see what flights leave for where on what airlines with this handy flight schedule link. Express Jet in particular gives great nonstop service to the West Coast, with San Diego, Sacramento and Ontario flights. It's pretty handy for househunting trips as well!

Denver International Airport (DIA) is only 75 miles north of us, and wherever you can't get from the Springs on a non-stop, you can almost always get via DIA. With United and Frontier both making Denver a hub, and service from Southwest and many international carriers, "the world is your oyster"!

The great fires that are incinerating southern California right now bring back some scary memories of the Hayman fire in the Pike and San Isabel National Forests back in the summer of 2002. The key difference? Relatively few homes were affected, even though it was the largest wildfire in the history of Colorado. My heart goes out to the people who are being evacuated with no certainty that their homes or their things will be there when they return. We have family in Temecula that had their subdivision cut off from the world yesterday as a result of the fire that closed the main road into their subdivision. They were lucky, and no homes burned, but these fires are scary huge.
On a happier note, the Rockies make their World Series debut tonight. I like their chances, although Boston has been tough, so we'll see how we do. That's why they play the games!
Temps will be back in the 70's today after snow on Sunday. That's Colorado weather for you!
On the less than happy front, the National Association of Realtors released a report today that shows nationally, existing home (resales in our jargon) sales fell 8% in September over last year, and that the median price has fallen 13 of the last 14 months in year to year monthly comparisons. This real estate recession is not over yet :-(

We woke up to a winter wonderland this morning, with bright sunshine and snow everywhere. Although it is melting, it isn't gone, and Pikes Peak sure was pretty all dressed in white!

The Rockies are already headed to Boston for game 1 of the World Series. That is so exciting around here. My son and his wife are a mixed marriage, she a Red Sox fan and he a Rockies fan. We'll see what compromises ensue!

The Broncos came back from the dead this week, with a pretty impressive (although once again cliffhanger in the 4th quarter) win over Pittsburgh. A World Series and a Super Bowl in the same year would probably be too much to ask, but maybe they will get things in gear finally to at least make a playoff appearance? The rest of the season's schedule doesn't really look too bad, other than a chance of revenge against San Diego.

We woke up to winter this morning after an almost 80 degree day yesterday! I guess the shorts and tee shirt aren't going to cut it today. We almost always get a storm right around Halloween, and while this is maybe a week early, it isn't like last year, when it was deep snow. It is still a good reminder that winter comes eventually. Thankfully, most of our snow storms melt pretty quick, and as you can see from the photo, this one isn't even sticking to the pavement. Glad I drained my sprinklers yesterday!

Why aren't mortgage rates lower? The stock market appears to be tanking again today, but surprisingly, mortgage rates have not dropped noticeably (still at around 6.25%). You'd almost think we'd be into the 5's by now with the recent Fed reduction combined with somewhat soft economic data and a declining stock market. I guess we'll wait and see.
PS 6.25% is still a GREAT mortgage rate!

Yahoo! We're in the World Series!! It is still hard to realize that such a short time ago the Rockies were written off for the season. The World Series comes to Denver, how great is that? When the Rockies came to Denver in 1993, it was part of an overall regional boom. Hopefully the fantastic season they are having will have some psychological spinoff for the region as well.
Enough baseball talk though. Having just come back from a great vacation, it reminded me of how good our regional transportation options are. Denver International Airport, after some serious problems when it first opened, has become quite an efficient place. Coming home, our luggage was already on the carousel by the time we got to baggage claim, quite amazing when you consider how large the place is. And from the Springs, it is only about 1 hour and 15 minutes from where we are in Briargate. Non stop flights are available to almost anywhere, and with low cost carriers such as Frontier and Southwest you can even go for a decent price. And let's not forget that Denver is also a United hub, and TED is their low cost option as well.
Colorado Springs airport is also very easy and convenient, and has nonstop service to many places, with only one stop usually to get to anywhere else. Express Jet now services some west coast destinations from the Springs as well, with low cost non-stop service to San Diego, Ontario and Sacramento.
Just another thing that makes living here great. When you need to be somewhere else, you can get there fairly quickly!

I've been on vacation this past week, what kick to see how well the Rockies are continuing to play! We went to Hawaii, about the only place I can think of that I'd rather be than right here in Colorado. Not a lot of real estate news while we were gone, but Arapahoe Basin actually opened for skiing already, and we had a flurry on the way home from the airport on Sunday, so winter gets closer. It was a little shock to system after enjoying this great sunset and dinner out on the lanai, but it's all good. I love to ski too!

"The Rockies did it again" is getting to sound like a broken record (I just realized that younger kids no longer recognize that phrase :-), but one of the longest winning streaks in baseball IS a record, and they are eager to break it. I'll be on vacation while the rest of this plays out, but I think the Rockies are going to the NL Championship game, ironically probably to face division rival Arizona. What fun!
The fall has remained very warm here, around 80 again today. I can't say I am unhappy with the nice weather, but by now we are usually starting to use our furnace, and it really doesn't need need it yet. We don't even have the first frost in the forecast! The leaves are starting to turn even down here, although the aspens are not, so the high country has got to be starting to thin I would guess. It should start cooling off soon, only 3 weeks until A Basin will try to open for ski season!

Rockies fever has gripped the area. After giving this season up for dead a month or 2 ago, many closet Rockies fans are coming out, especially after they won yesterday in their first playoff game against Philadelphia. Schools announced the score on the loudspeakers, businesses had the game on in their lobbies, it was great! The Avalanche game that kicked off hockey season was not even noticed, and surprisingly few even were talking about the upcoming Broncos football game Sunday against San Diego. Baseball is back! It is really a great story to see a team win 14 of their last 15 games and make it into the playoffs.
While it won't fix the real estate market here, it gives a nice bright hopeful feel to things.
I had an interesting conversation with someone yesterday about their view of the current market. With foreclosures high, and prices low, his take is that this is the perfect time to invest in rental property, provided financing is available (which it is). Since demand for rentals is actually increasing as some have had to vacate their homes, buying now, at a low point in the cycle, covering cash flow with rents that seem to be firming up, and selling 5 years from now when the market is more normal, seems like a great strategy to me as well.

Ok, now it's official. The Colorado Rockies ARE in the playoffs, and the September real estate statistics are in. Personally, I'm liking the Rockies story better. After an amazing end of season run that forced the tie breaker game, winning the coin toss for home field, and being down 2 runs in the 13th inning, what a great way to end the regular season! I'm sure this team will be remembered for years to come as the team that would not quit.
The real estate statistics? Sales were down 21.7% from last year. Inventory was up 14.1% (the official number was 6767 single family units for the end of the month). The median sales price was down 2.3% at $210,000, and the average (mean) sales price was down 5.4% at $255,330. This sort of reminds me of a snow storm, where they tell you how much has fallen at various places so far, and it's still coming down!
The good news is that interest rates remain at around 6.25%, which is a very good number. El Paso County bond money is available again for first time homebuyers, with up to 4% down payment / closing cost assistance (call for details on that one, restrictions do apply!) And we have lots of homes that are eligible for very low down payment financing. And sellers seem to "get it" a little bit better right now than earlier in the year. It is easier to make an offer, and expect a reasonable response.

Three quarters of the year is over, and from a real estate standpoint, it hasn't improved as the year went on. The official stats are due out later in the week, but it is looking like another month of woe, with sales down 20% over last year (probably around 700 units), but down over 40% from 2 years ago. The inventory was finally down a little, 6771 units as of this noon, but many of those are "discouraged sellers" as opposed to homes selling off of the market.
That Bronco game yesterday was over after the 3rd quarter too, what a bummer. At least the Rockies pulled it out of the fire, how exciting is a one game playoff!
I guess just like in sports, there is always next year.