Gas was $1.45 a gallon yesterday at my regular Western Convenience station at Briargate and Union in Colorado Springs. Lower gas prices should have a short term boost to consumer spending, but from a real estate perspective, it should ease the concerns people may have about buying further from the city center. One of the unpleasant side effects of the Oil Crisis of 2008 is that people have been a lot more worried about buying homes further from town. El Paso County is pretty spread out, and there are significant developments that are not conducive to walking, biking or busing to work. Areas like Woodland Park, Monument, Falcon, and Fountain should benefit from softer gas prices.

We wrote an offer on a property yesterday, and were pleased to get a quote below 6% on the interest rate. It was a 2nd home purchase, and the lender was also only requiring 10% down, which I think is pretty good considering the kinds of press that has been out there about funds not being available. It was a bank owned property, and the asking price was more than 25% less than the house had sold for in 2006 as new construction. You can see why the banks have a problem with these, and why distressed property made up 27% of our sales last month.

Today's photo was taken on Saturday at Prospect Lake at Memorial Park, where the ducks and geese were having a lot of fun in the shallows.