One of the questions people often ask, is what do things cost in Colorado Springs, and how does that compare with other places? While I can't speak for other places, I thought I'd list a couple of common expenses and what they cost here.
1. Gas - yesterday gas was $2.36 / gal at the King Soopers (Kroger) around the corner from our house
2. Milk - this has been running about the same as gas, around $2.49 / gallon
3. Rent - If you decide to rent (not recommended by this Realtor!), single family homes in reasonable areas start at around $1100, but plan to pay more like $1800 if you want the best school districts or a larger, nicer, newer home.
4. Property taxes - This varies by school district, but in general we figure on 3/4% of the market value as a planning figure. It is often less, for example I have a listing at $295,000 where the taxes are only $1600.
5. Sales Tax - 7.2% in the city of Colorado Springs, but it excludes groceries, labor etc.
6. Utilities - This depends on a lot of factors. Our own tend to average $300 / month for everything except trash service, but that is for a 4200 sf house with a hot tub. Obviously smaller, newer and no hot tub make them lower, but if you keep your house at 75 all winter or water your grass 3 times a day in the summer, it will be higher.

I voted on Thursday! It took an hour and a half to get through the line at the Chapel Hills Mall, but at least it is done now. I am so sick of political ads, pollsters, etc it will be great to have this election thing over with.

With all the money that is being thrown at the banks, you'd think mortgage rates would be at 5% or less right now, but no such luck. In fact rates have actually been rising, and are back up to 7% right now. So much for well intended programs. When the Fed will loan the banks money for 1%, it seems crazy that they turn around and charge 7% to loan it out to someone who qualifies for a mortgage.

We are still having a nice summery stretch of weather here in Colorado Springs. It is a little unusual to stay this nice this long, but you aren't hearing any complaints! The photo above was taken in the Maroon Bells a couple of weeks ago.

Today's paper had an interesting article about graduation rates of Colorado Springs area high schools. It was interesting to me that the districts with the top test scores (12, 38 and 20) also had the highest graduation rates (typically mid 90's). Also, a couple of districts that have typically suffered in the area of test scores also had lower graduation rates (2 and 11). The good news was that almost every district in the city had graduation rates above the national average (except 2 and 11) See complete details at The Gazette.

Speaking of Colorado Springs area schools, many have ballot initiatives, and that brings up the story of when I tried to vote earlier today. The Chapel Hills Mall has early voting (along with lots of other goodies, including a Department of Motor Vehicles office), and since it is right across the street from my office, I thought it would be a quick stop. WRONG! I think everyone in the city had decided to vote today, I've never seen lines like that in a regular polling place! So I grabbed a sample ballot, and figure I'll either go again at a better time, or just vote at my precinct on the 4th.

The ballot itself is huge this year. Part of this is because of something we call TABOR, or the Taxpayers Bil of Rights, that requires all tax (or spending) increases of any kind to be voted on by everyone. It kind of hamstrings the state legislature, and taxes are not popular here, but it makes for some very ugly elections sometimes, with initiatives that are so complicated it would take an hour to vote if you had not prepared in advance. I think I would prefer we let the elected officials do their job, but I suppose if we did that, who knows how high taxes would be. As it is, our taxes here (income, sales and property) are pretty low. I am excited that my youngest kids are voting in their first presidential election this year!

It look like Colorado Springs is going to miss it's annual Halloween snow storm this year. It is one of the more predictable weather events here. Moreover, it looks like we may even be back in the 70's for most of the week, which is even more rare. Don't get me wrong, it is very pleasant to have blue skies, warm temps, and some color still in some of the trees. And while snow season is eagerly awaited in the high country, down here we like to have dry roads to get around on. One of the things we noticed when we first moved here is that the churches and the malls tend to have a lot of indoor activities to compensate for the sometime chilly and snowy weather we get at Halloween. Some of these events may be less well attended this year, and I suspect the door bell to be ringing pretty steady, and the stores will run out of candy, as it is just going to be really nice out!

The new home statistics that came out this week show a continuing brighter picture, although it is still not great. Many of our builders are offering some nice year end incentives to close by 12/31. Once the election is over, it appears to me that we'll have a pickup in activity, as people will get back to living their lives and not worrying about "what if".

Apparently Colorado Springs is not the only place where sales actually increased on a year to year basis last month. The National Association of Realtors, in figures just released today, is now saying that sale of existing homes increased last month over the prior year across the whole country, and especially the West. Seasonally adjusted data shows a 1.4% increase, with a whopping 34.4% in the Western region. When seasonal adjustments are ignored, the West was up 42.9%. The corresponding number for our local market was 9.6% (ignoring new construction and seasonal adjustments), but still, these are very good numbers.

In the story behind the numbers, what seems to be happening is an increased recognition by investors and home buyers alike, that people still need homes. In addition, it has become obvious that the stock market is not any safer than real estate as an investment vehicle (and maybe a whole lot less so), and there is an increasing conviction that prices and interest rates will not stay this low forever, or for that matter, even much longer.

Today's photo was taken last Sunday 10/19 at Parliament Park in Briargate. The leaves really got blown down a lot in the days immediately after this was taken.

Colorado Springs woke up this morning to our first snow of the season. Not on the Peak, on the ground. A balmy 25 degrees out, the wind made it feel a LOT colder. This aspen in front of our house has lost 1/3 of it's leaves, and they had not even turned color yet! But never fear, this is Colorado, and while we probably won't see 70 again this year, we'll be back in the 60's yet this week. The tree below is one of our neighbors, and is not an aspen, although I am not sure what it actually is (maybe a maple of some sort?)
The local employment news was not very good in the Gazette this morning. a gain of only .1%. It is understandable in some ways, given the loss of some good high tech jobs at HP and Intel, as well as the massive contraction of the local residential construction industry, and the continued deployment of many of our troops from Fort Carson. Still, it would be a lot better if we could get back on a bit more of a growth track soon.

Yesterday was probably one of the last "summer like" days of the year in Colorado Springs. A series of cold fronts will likely knock a lot of leaves down soon, and the sprinkler systems are going to have to be drained pretty quick, as a hard freeze is on its way. We'll miss those 70 plus degree days for a while.

Fall is an important home maintenance season. Draining and shutting down the sprinklers is really important here, along with disconnecting any hoses that might be out. Cleaning the gutters while it is still safe and possible is always smart, and of course changing furnace filters and smoke detector batteries are good to take care of as well. The leaf raking and bulb planting are good too, although I think the bulbs do better if planted a little later yet.

Today's photos were taken Sunday at Parliament Park, very near my office and Chapel Hills Mall. It is an extremely popular "senior picture" spot in town, and I could not resist capturing how much the fall color season has now reached us here in the Springs. I am embarrassed to say that while I have driven past this park literally thousands of times, I never stopped for a few photos of my own until yesterday.

My mother-in-law had another surgery this week. The health care system in Colorado Springs is really quite good, we have been very pleased with the care she has received for her many maladies. We are starting to call her the Bionic Grandma, as this was her 3rd joint replacement (hip, knee and now shoulder)! We now have 4 regular hospitals (Penrose Main, Memorial Central, Penrose - St Francis North, and Memorial North), in addition to military hospitals and some specialized care facilities. Memorial North is only 1 1/2 years old, and Penrose - St Francis North is only a couple of months old.
After this week's wild ride in the stock market, interest rates settled back down to 6.5%, and gas prices dropped to $2.85. While that is small consolation to anyone selling stock at the bottom, it is a pleasant side effect for everyone else, even "Joe the Plumber" :-)
Today's photo is of Pikes Peak last Sunday morning, taken from the Shops at Briargate. I love the 1st snows on the Peak.

Colorado Springs is not immune from the craziness in the financial markets right now. Interest rates shot up to 7% yesterday along with the freefall of the stock market. But while all this was going on, gas prices fell almost 20 cents ($2.93!), and it was a gorgeous day, so I guess you have to put things in perspective.
Yesterday was also our office's Luxury Home Tour (this link will show you what we saw), and we saw some really beautiful homes, all in the $600's. They ranged from mountain lodge style homes, to country style rural playgrounds, and it was really fun. Yet another reason I enjoy being a part of RE/MAX Properties.
Maybe the most important thing that happened yesterday was the opening of Arapahoe Basin and Loveland ski areas. Ok, maybe not that important, but still great? Opening day of ski season for me is a while down the road still, but it is always fun to see the first ones open. Generally the conditions are terrible for these openings, and you don't want to scratch your equipment up on the exposed rocks.
I will be glad when the election is over, however it turns out. Last night's presidential debate was much better than the last one, it seemed like the questions were much more interesting, and there was less repetition of the stump speaches, but I'm pretty convinced that whoever wins, very little will really change.
Today's photo is from a couple of weeks ago at Rocky Mountain National Park.

One of the reasons I like working with Colorado Springs local builders is that I like how they think. There is a commitment to community, to the customer and to their suppliers that gives you that "warm fuzzy" feeling you are working with someone who cares. A case in point was a conversation I had yesterday with Lee Bolin, president of Saddletree Homes. We had a lunch engagement we were rescheduling, and in the course of the conversation, he mentioned they were dropping their prices by 5% for a while, essentially to "employee pricing" levels, to ensure continuity of work for his subcontractors and employees. His comment to me that hit me hard was this (paraphrased): When you've got 20 plus years of experience working with the same subs, you have a commitment to their well being as well. That is what I want for my clients. These are tough times for builders, and I respect that kind of commitment.

This was contrasted with a client who called yesterday, to tell me that the large national builder who had built their home had abandoned all responsibility for the covenants and / or HOA for their area, and wouldn't even give them a contact for someone who might be able to help with covenant issues. This builder had closed all of their local operations as soon as the economy softened, along with several others.

Today's photo is of a hike we took Saturday out of Frisco. Hiking in Summit County is really accessible, and there are so many great trails, it is hard to pick one sometimes!

This morning's rate cut by the Fed says that the world banking crisis is far from over. With another stock market crash yesterday, and rate cutting today, they are definitely running scared. Seems like it wasn't very long ago that they were more worried about inflation than recession / depression. Such volatility can't be good for anyone. Speaking of which, it is fascinating by how oil prices could shoot up to such heights, and come back down again so fast, without gasoline prices following suit (although in fairness, we are at $3.30 / gallon here, not great, but not awful). This year will be etched into a lot of people's memories, both for the presidential election, as well as the energy, housing and banking catastrophes.

To add insult to injury, Colorado Springs Utilities is now proposing a rate increase estimated at 23%. This is allegedly because of higher natural gas and coal prices, as well as to cover lost revenue that they had planned on with new customers that never came on line, due to the lack of new homes being built. We currently have some of the lowest utility costs in the country, it will be interesting to see if we keep that position, you'd think other utility providers would have similar problems.

Today's photos are from the Maroon Bells again. The park is surrounded by jagged peaks, some of which are almost as interesting as the actual bells.

The implosion of the financial markets is predictably having at least some impact on the mortgage industry in Colorado Springs, if for no other reason than they both compete for the same funds. Generally when the stock market tanks, interest rates go down, however, this has not happened quite yet, as they are still hovering around 6% despite the Dow closing below 10,000. Mortgage guidelines continue to tighten, however, the new rules are not all unreasonable. They are simply bringing the rules back in line with what have been common sense rules historically. By paying attention to the percentage of income people are making in house payments, and requiring reasonable credit scores and documentation, it is a bit like closing the barn after the horses have already gotten out, but it has to be done. Most of these rules are not that strenuous, and will be good for the market longer term.

I am getting a chuckle (between bouts of nausea) out of the new court fight between CitiGroup and Wells Fargo over Wachovia Bank. Citi made a sweetheart deal with the backing of the FDIC, and Wells figured out it was worth a lot more than that, and moreover did not need federal funds to do it. Now CitiGroup wants a court to award them $60 billion to cover their "lost opportunity" to steal the bank. Is there no shame? As things like this develop after the passing of the "bailout bill", on top of the millions in last minute bonuses at Lehman Brothers before it went under, is it any wonder that people are disgusted with the banking industry in this country?

I am a sucker for mountain scenery. The top photo today is, of course, the famous Maroon Bells, near Aspen. The lower photo is Mount Sopris, taken at Carbondale. Both pictures are from Sunday, October 5, 2008.

Fall is probably my favorite season, in Colorado Springs, or almost anywhere else we go. I love the cooler weather, the color, the lack of crowds (football games excepted of course!), and the general feeling of change in the air. Even the smell of wood smoke at night and of the leaves in the woods when we hike, is special. The smell of apples, cinnimon and other fall food is great too!

We spent our anniversary weekend this year up in the mountains enjoying the fall. It is almost over in some areas, and hasn't hardly even started yet in our own yard. Funny how that works. The weather was such a variety. We left on Friday afternoon with very summery, mid 70's sunny weather. It was kind of cool and wet in Breckenridge where we stayed, and was that way all day Saturday, though it was dry enough for some nice hiking. On Sunday, we expected to wake up to snow, and instead found partly cloudy skies with some nice patches of sun, which followed us all the way to Aspen. Then we ran into snow last night on Independence Pass, coming back from Aspen, a vivid reminder that winter is around the corner.

The 1st shot above was of the golf course in Vail as we drove through yesterday on the way up to Aspen. The 2nd is a stand of aspen up in the Maroon Bells that caught my eye as the classic "aspens again the blue sky" shot. One again, I got lots of photos, and I'll try and share some of them over the next several posts.

Colorado Springs home sales statistics for September 08 aren't official yet, but it looks like we finally have a year to year INCREASE IN UNIT SALES! This is the first time since May of '06 that the year to year figures show an increase (5.6%) Prices are still soft, the average is down 6.3%, but this is really good news for us. We recently have been told the Denver Metro area has been upgraded to Stable from Declining as well, which mean that regionally, the worst is likely over.

The "bailout plan" looks like it is back on. There is a lot at stake, and after the prior fiasco in the House of Representatives, there are high expectations this version will pass. If it does not, we can expect more turmoil in the financial markets for the foreseeable future, and likely see a deepening recession. No one (even in Washington!) wants that.

Today's photo was from Friday 9-26 at Rocky Mountain National Park. It was amazing to be able to be so close to these magnificent elk.