Official July statistics for Colorado Springs real estate sales won't be out until after the 4th of July holiday, but preliminary figures show that while our sales continue to be anemic, some good news has started with prices and supply. Prices have been rebounding since December, and both the average and the mean price have increased to $256,824 and $222,000 respectively. The percentage of distressed units has dropped sharply, to 17.65%, from a high of 26% in February. It remains to be seen whether this is a trend or a blip, but I have felt for a while now that the percentage of distressed units has been drag on prices. The inventory of unsold homes has dropped almost 4% since last June.

We have some new clouds on the economic horizon, with Hewlett Packard announcing they will be shifting employees from some Colorado Springs operations to New Mexico starting next year, and to Ft Collins. The Fort Collins folks may take the transfers, as there are some great lifestyle issues to be had in Ft Collins, but the New Mexico transfers will not be as popular. We'll see how it shakes out. By then we should be seeing more returning troops to Ft Carson from Iraq.

Today's photo is the Blue River from downtown Breckenridge along the river walk. Today will be the hottest day of the year so far, around 90, and the I always think of the cool mountain air and ice cold waters of the mountains on days like this.