Forest Gump Would Like the Black Forest

Actually, a lot of us like the Black Forest, but it is like the proverbial box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get. As one of the best areas of Colorado Springs to find acreage and trees, it also has lots of sub areas that vary widely in terms of covenants, style and age of home, and condition. Not to mention road access. Generally prices start in the upper 300's, even for fixer uppers. The house that I took these photos at showed pretty rough, had a bad driveway, and bad road in, and was still priced around $425,000.

I took these photos Monday (4-20-09) while previewing homes for some clients. The house was really 2 houses (it had a guest house), and when I was leaving, the goats and llamas starting bleating at me. After I snapped their picture, I turned to leave and saw some more animals out of the corner of my, which turned out to be deer. You can see all the snow still left over from the Friday / Saturday storm, but it has been 60's and 70's since, and the trees and bushes are just ready pop with new leaves and flowers.

We will be on vacation until 5-4-09, so if you have real estate needs that need to be addressed between now and then, please my associate Bill Van Tol at 719-229-9100 and mention you saw it in my blog!

Colorado Ski Resorts Close With Lots of Snow

I used up my last ski day from my pass yesterday at Copper Mountain, where the last day of the season had the best snow I saw all season. I think they had 18 inches or so within 48 hours, it was great, and especially for end of season conditions. The weather was perfect too, not a cloud in the sky. At home in the Springs is was close to 60, and almost no evidence of our storm remained when I got home. Technically, there are still a couple of ski areas that remain open. Arapahoe Basin is famous for staying open as long as possible, and Loveland also stays open a little longer. These are small ski areas, the main areas are all closed now.
The moisture of the last week has got some green starting to peak through on the lawns. It won't be long and the trees and bushes will start leafing out, and it will start looking like spring for real. Golf season got it's start interrupted by the weather this week, but the area courses should be filling up again shortly. Hiking, biking, tennis, catching a baseball game, a whole new season awaits! With temps in the upper 60's and mid 70's, should be a perfect outdoor week.
Got questions about living in Colorado Springs? Call me at 719-590-4768 or 888-568-6784!

Colorado Springs Sees 2nd Major Snowstorm in 1 Week

After the Easter Sunday snowstorm this week, it kind of had me thinking Colorado Springs was done with snow for the season (at least with major storms), but this one was even bigger. Schools were closed yesterday, and for good reason, as the snow just kept coming back after it would quit for while. There were even some periods of thunder and lightening in the middle, kind of a rare occurrence. This was a classic 'Albuquerque low', with low pressure moving slowly through New Mexico, sucking moist air from the Gulf of Mexico up to mix with cold air over the Rockies, and just keep snowing. It was still snowing this morning, but is starting to let up, and I won't be surprised if the sun is out by noon, and at least the streets melted off by dinner. I think we had 8 - 10 inches maybe at our house? The temperature is already close to 40, so the worst is over. March and April are traditionally our snowiest months, and this year was certainly no exception to that pattern. The good news is that this should pretty much get us back up to snuff with the water supply. Lots of wet snow should result in the mountain reservoirs filling up pretty nicely.

The ski resorts are pretty much all scheduled to close this weekend, with well over a foot of fresh on top of a 6 foot base! I had really hoped to get one more day in yet this year, maybe tomorrow? I 70 was closed for a chunk of the day yesterday, so even with good snow, you couldn't get there!

Got questions about living in Colorado Springs? Call me at 719-590-4768 or 888-568-6784!

Tax Day and Shopping in Colorado Springs

Many cities in the country had Tax Day tea parties yesterday, and Colorado Springs was no exception. Friends who attended the festivities in Acacia Park were impressed with how smooth it all went. Conservatives protesting in the public square isn't something you see every day, if they had been rowdy about it I guess it would really have been news! I was surprised the Gazette reported only 1500 people were there, friends had guessed double that. For as fiscally conservative as Colorado Springs tends to be, I would have thought more would attend, but then again, some of us were working!
The news of the General Growth Corporation Chapter 11 Bankruptcy filing is pretty sad here in Colorado Springs. The Chapel Hills Mall, across the street from my office in Briargate, is a General Growth Property, and while this is anticipated to go rather smoothly and not force any major closings, it still reflects on how difficult the business climate has become nationally. The mall is where my youngest son works, and while we are not big shoppers as a family, it is where we go when mall shopping is required, not to mention the food court is a pretty convenient quick bite for lunch, and the theaters are also very close and convenient. The other major mall in the city is The Citadel, which is quite a bit further south. The Promenade Shops at Briargate is a newer outdoor shopping and dining center that has competed somewhat with Chapel Hills in recent years, though it is really a different experience altogether.
Got questions about living in Colorado Springs? Call me at 719-590-4768 or 888-568-6784!

Living Like a Tourist in Colorado Springs

I don't know where the expression 'live like a tourist' really comes from, but I like it. It has the connotation to me that every day we should take a little vacation, experience some of the joys that we all tend to get a lot more of while we are not at work, and that are unique to our locale. Yesterday morning I had a couple of extra minutes while I was out running some errands, and stopped by the Garden of the Gods and took a couple of pictures. Our summer visitors don't tend to get to see Pikes Peak with a fresh mantle of white, and in a month or 2 neither will we until next fall, so I thought I'd try to catch it after our slushy snow on Easter Sunday. This shot was taken at the Garden of the Gods Visitors Center, and is probably one of the most commonly taken photos of Pikes Peak. This free city park is a great place to come for a short (or long) walk, bring a sandwich for lunch (or coffee for breakfast, you name it). In short, it' really a great place to live like a tourist!

Got questions about living in Colorado Springs? Call me at 719-590-4768 or 888-568-6784!

Iraq Casualties Hit Home in the Springs

This morning we learned that the 5 troops killed in Mosul, Iraq last week were based right here at Fort Carson. As the whole conflict winds down, these kinds of things are very sobering, and our hearts are saddened for the families affected. Our own family is particularly sensitive to developments in Iraq this week, as our oldest son is leaving in the next day or so for Iraq as a civilian contractor. He spent 5 years on the Army previously, and has been doing some work with a company stateside doing logistics support. With the economy the way it is, this looked like a good opportunity, although I have to say I did not expect he'd be heading over to Iraq as a part of the job. We are proud of his willingness to 'do what it takes', and like the families of all of our armed forces, are going to be praying for his safe return.
The Easter snow quit in the later part of the afternoon, and this morning bright sunshine looks like it will be melting off kind of fast. My wife the school teacher was a little disappointed they didn't at least get a late start out of it, but this time of year, it is a little unusual to cancel school for snow, as it melts pretty quick.
Got questions about living in Colorado Springs? Call me at 719-590-4768 or 888-568-6784!

Snowy Happy Easter in Colorado Springs

Not a great day for an outdoor Easter Egg hunt in Colorado Springs today. I don't know the exact statistic on this one, but the odds of snow on Easter in Colorado Springs are much better than Christmas (March and April are our snowiest months), and the weather certainly lived up to it's reputation today! We went to the 8am service at New Life, and it was well attended, though not packed (the later services are more crowded historically, sometimes standing room only). I took today's photo after we got back though, as it had snowed the whole time we were in service. The streets were pretty good overall, one thing about spring snow storms is that the snow tends to be pretty wet and slushy on the roads as opposed to any kind of icy mess. It usually isn't cold enough to become a bigger problem, though sometimes a lot of wet heavy snow can break tree branches.

This year all of our kids seemed tied up with things so we are not hosting an annual Easter feast at our house. In 27 years of marriage I don't think we've ever gone out for an Easter meal, so I think we'll try it this year and see how it goes!

Got questions about living in Colorado Springs? Call me at 719-590-4768 or 888-568-6784!

Easter In Colorado Springs Is A Big Deal

Today is Good Friday, the day that Christians all over the world remember the crucifixion of Christ, followed of course by Easter, the day that celebrates the Resurrection. In Colorado Springs, there have always been plenty of Easter traditions. One of the more 'famous' was the annual Easter Sunrise service at Garden of the Gods (this sunrise shot was taken last summer). It was thought to the longest running Easter sunrise service, but became somewhat a victim of it's own success when thousands would overrun the park on Easter morning. At one point they had shuttle buses taking people from satellite parking areas and everything. Our unpredictable spring weather was often not even a deterrent, people would still come out, even if it snowed. There are a few that still gather informally at the park, but nowadays the churches all pretty much do their own things. With as many 'mega churches' as we have, there is no location in the city (other than perhaps Memorial Park) that could come close to holding everyone at once.
New Life Church, where we attend, has had an Easter production call The Thorn that they've done for years. It is somewhat of an 'R' rated passion play (they have a children's production that is a lot less graphic), and quite an experience. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 50,000 people attend this (spread over many performances), we are going to this year's production tomorrow. Satellite Map View of New Life
Got questions about living in Colorado Springs? Call me at 719-590-4768 or 888-568-6784!

Colorado Springs / El Paso County Health Department is GREAT!

We are going on a relatively short overseas trip before long to South Africa. It is a special family event for my daughter-in-law, who is from there, and in doing our research, discovered there may be some immunizations needed. Further research indicated that some of these may not be readily available at your doctors office, so this morning I went to the El Paso County Health Department for a briefing and immunizations. Their facility is antiquated, but directly across from Memorial Park, and the staff was so helpful and courteous, it made me forget I had gone to get a shot! They were also quick, almost to the minute of when they said they would see me, and for how long it would take. This is a public service that really works!

It turned cool, cloudy and windy today after a couple of really nice days, but so far no rain or snow.

Got questions about living in Colorado Springs? Call me at 719-590-4768 or 888-568-6784!

Colorado Springs City Election No Surprise

In 'off years', Colorado Springs has gone to mail in elections. It saves a bunch of money and time, but also drops the participation rate. Yesterday was the ballot deadline, and the results were not really very surprising. Only 1/3 or so voted. The biggest controversy was the proposition called 1a, which was to allow the city to use an expiring mill levy to recruit and retain employers to the city. For $10 / year or so, it sounded good to me, but this is a pretty tax resistant bunch here, and so even this went down to defeat. We need more jobs here, the local unemployment rate is over 8% at this point, but they won't be coming from this measure.
We got a touch of summer yesterday, with the temps around 70, and more of that today before another cold front hits. I need to get one more ski day in before they close the resorts for the season! I did manage to get my hot tub refilled and cleaned.

Got questions about living in Colorado Springs? Call me at 719-590-4768 or 888-568-6784!

Google's Street View of Colorado Springs Is Pretty Good

There was an Internet article floating around this week about a town in the UK that objected to Google using their Street View camera to record the town. What a shame! It is very handy to see the street view of what an area of town looks like. Take for example the link below. It starts you out looking at a traditional map view of downtown. The Antlers Hotel is right at the center of downtown, the corner of Cascade and Pikes Peak. If you drag the icon of the little man onto the street, you can see an amazing amount of detail, and it allows you to essentially travel up and down the downtown streets. While it isn't exactly post card quality photos in many instances, it is very clear imagery as such things go. You can jump to almost any address or section of town and get a street view, call or email if you need help using this!
Google Maps View of Downtown Colorado Springs
Today's 'blizzard' turned out to be a lot of very windy cold air, but almost no snow. Apparently other areas nearby got hammered, and we just had all of our lawn furniture blow off our deck, but only some flurries.
Got questions about living in Colorado Springs? Call me at 719-590-4768 or 888-568-6784!

Colorado Springs March Real Estate Sales Better, But Still Weak

It will be interesting to see which spin The Gazette will pick when they report March of 2009 Colorado Springs real estate statistics. Will it be 'Real Estate Sales Up 12.3%', or will be it 'Local Home Sales Plummet 21.6%'? We won't know for another week or so, but either one could be right, because sales are up 12.3% over last month, but down significantly from last March. The link below gives some detailed analysis of the situation, but the positive trends are that inventory seems to be under control, down 13.2% from last year, the median price has begun to rise again, up 4.3% from last month at $185,000, and the average price has begun to rise, up 2.9% from last month at $212,549. As with any set of numbers, you can see things as either 1/2 full or 1/2 empty. I'll take the 1/2 full version on this one! Colorado Springs Real Estate Sales Trends
I took another ski yesterday (I need to use up my 4 pack, and had out of town buyers scheduled for the weekend) and was very happy with the snow conditions, although the weather was pretty wintery. While it was sunny and in the 50's here in the Springs, it was about 15 degrees and blowing hard up in the high country, in advance of another winter storm scheduled to arrive here today. Such a huge disparity in weather conditions is pretty normal between the plains and the mountains (especially in the spring), it is part of the package that makes living here so great!
Got questions about living in Colorado Springs? Call me at 719-590-4768 or 888-568-6784!