Season Pass sales for ski season begin ( Breckenridge, Keystone, A-Basin and Vail or Copper Mountain, Winter Park and Steamboat for my 2 personal favorites) this weekend, with the best deals available just through September 3rd. Obviously we have lots of other resorts in the state, but access is an issue for some such as Telluride, and price and access are both issues at Aspen / Snowmass, and size is more an issue at places like Ski Cooper, Monarch, Wolf Creek, etc.
Colorado has the best mountains, the best snow (ok Utah, I know you like yours too!), and when you live here, the best ski deals! Prices have all gone up this year, and so have restrictions (black out dates, transferability of 4 packs etc), but the season pass deals are still a pretty great bargain. We have had our season passes at Copper Mountain for the last several years, but I decided to switch back to the Colorado Pass with Breckendridge, Keystone, A Basin (which is usually open until Memorial Day) and 10 days at Vail. I love the mountain at Copper, but when they raised the season pass rate to $350 from $260, it is not that great of a deal compared with the Colorado Pass that for $419 also includes 10 days at Vail, and gives more variety (such as night skiing at Keystone, longer season at A Basin, etc). The kids will probably do 4 packs this year, given how busy they were last year and the higher prices, which are $119 at Copper and $129 for Breck/Keystone.

Labor Day in Colorado Springs marks the end of summer, like most places, but it is also the weekend of the Colorado Springs Balloon Classic. We have always enjoyed this event, because during the week before, we'll often see some early arrivals decorating the morning sky around town, and the event itself is really beautiful. There is something about all that color lit up against the mountain backdrop that is just special. The morning flights are always subject to cooperation from the wind, and there have been more than a few of these that have been delayed or cancelled, but it is a very festive atmosphere nonetheless. Their web site also has come great photos, take a peek!

About basements. I just got some feedback from another agent about the basement in one of my listings not being "up to snuff" for his buyer, and I decided I just HAVE to write something about basement finishes.
First, a little about basements. In Colorado Springs, because we don't have earthquakes, high water tables or high humidity, basements are on probably 95% of all of our homes, and they can be great living spaces. They stay cool in the summer, can be a cozy place for TV in the winter, and make great guest suites, teen retreats, theater room areas, etc. A lot of people like them finished, since it is incrementally such inexpensive space. The minimum finish for most basements is at least 1 bedroom, 1 full (or 3/4) bath, and a rec room or family room of some sort. Typical basement finish work ranges from $25 - $50 per foot depending on finish level, bathroom and wet bar issues, etc. Smaller ranch style plans will often come with standard builder finished basements, just to get saleable bed and bath counts and finished square footage.
Basements come in several flavors. Walkout basements allow access to the outside from the basement and are usually the brightest. Garden level basements have their windows at or above grade level, so while you can't walk through a door to get to the outside, you can see pretty well, and are also on the bright end of the scale, depending on how it is done. Full basements have their windows below grade, so you are looking out at a window well of some sort. These tend to have a darker feel to them, although on some high end homes, very large window wells (and windows) are made to combat this problem.
1. If you are having a house built, and EVER plan to have the basement finished, have the builder do it as a part of the package. You will
a. save headaches
b. probably save money in the long run
c. get to enjoy it right away
d. likely get better financing on the work than if you do it later
e. get better warranty coverage
f. comply with building code from day 1
2. If you have a house with an unfinished basement, and you want it finished, get a reputable, professional contractor to do it. There are more botched, half finished, badly laid out, not to code, unpleasant basement finishes out there than you can shake a stick at, and as one trainer puts it, you'd be better off to burn a stack of $100 bills in the middle of it.
3. If you did not pay attention to either item above, at LEAST make sure you get permits and inspections per the law, and use good, reputable subcontractors for the skilled trade work such as plumbing, heating, electrical, and finish carpentry, and make sure the paint, carpet and fixtures are comparable enough to the rest of the house so as not to stick out as "cheap".
4. If you have doubts about the permit status of a home (this can include decks and roofs as well basement finish work), you can access the permit history on any home in El Paso County at http://www.pprbd.org/PublicAccess/AddressSearch.aspx . Regional Building will allow permits to be pulled after the fact, but there is a penalty, and rumor is that inspections can be somewhat punitive.
Bottom line? Doing it right the first time is the best way to avoid problems all the way around.

The weather has been front page news all over this week, with flooding in the Midwest and hurricanes in the Gulf. Colorado Springs weather hasn't been catastrophic, but it is always interesting. I took these pictures last night as tornado warnings were being issued for the eastern part of El Paso county. We don't get a lot of tornado activity here, and I guess there was one questionable funnel cloud out near Ellicott when all was said and done, but the skies were pretty interesting to watch. The fascinating thing to me was how blue the sky directly overhead was compared to what was happening out east.

There have been storms of a different kind brewing in the financial markets, with entire lending industry being shaken up by it. The net result, at least as of today, is that mortgage interest rates have actually dropped over the past week in part at least in response to the Fed lowering one of their benchmark rates. As of today, the going rate locally is back to 6.375%, at least for now. With over 7100 homes for sale, this is certainly good news for us locally.

Fallout from the current housing "recession" is different for every community. Locally, we have about 8% of our inventory in some sort of "distressed" situation (ie bank owned, preforeclosure, HUD or VA repo, etc). Overall, this is not too bad. I have heard reports from other areas of the country where this number can top 50%. With lower interest rates and a few good breaks from the economic news, we could be well past this situation by next spring.

The brand new Starbucks at Union and Briargate has to be the best Starbucks in all of Colorado Springs (I should know, I think I have visited them all ... :-) I love the large patio that looks out over the 100 acre park and up at Pikes Peak, give it 5 stars for view and setting. I know it is probably not as busy as it will get, but it also feels very unhurried and peaceful, which is how I like to enjoy my coffee, and best of all, it is walking distance to our house! This is the 3rd store to open in a 1 mile radius in the last month, the other 2 being the ones in the new King Soopers (in basically the same location) and the one in Target at Union and Powers. All these in addition to Albertson's at Research and Union! While grocery store versions get you the coffee and even give you a place to sit and drink, it isn't quite the same.
The Parade of Homes is in full swing at the moment. I hate to say it, but it seems like no one even notices anymore. Years ago, this was a big event, but it just doesn't have the buzz it used to. Too many homes, too many locations, and sometimes it feels like they are charging money to visit the same model parks that were free the month before. They always have something interesting however, and there are 16 homes over a million this year (a total of 46 homes!).
Here is the link Colorado Springs Parade of Homes Site

The Pikes Peak Ascent is today. The only thing crazier to me than running 13 miles uphill (8000 feet of vertcal) is what they do tomorrow, which is run up AND back for the Pikes Peak Marathon. My niece and son climbed up and back 16 years ago (an all day project, not like these races), and I still remember them being comatose (ok, how about just less than fully functional?) for 3 days trying to recover. She enjoyed it so much she talked her husband into reliving the experience last week. It's nuts! Well, at least to an old fat guy like me.
Last nights weather reminded me again why the inspectors all tell you NOT to have refrigerators and freezers plugged into GFI (Ground Fault Interupt) outlets. One of my outdoor recepticals must have gotten wet (wow did it rain and thunder, it seemed to last for hours!), and it caused the circuit to trip, shutting off the refrig and freezer (see how I am, do as I say, not as I do...) that I have always had plugged into the garage GFI. Fortunately we were home and were able to reset the outlet a very short time later, but a freezer full of food can be a big problem if you are gone when such things happen.
It was nice to see some good economic news in the paper this morning. 4.3% unemployement and 2500 new jobs added since last year at this time seem good to me anyway. While the higher paying jobs of the tech sector and construction are both off, at least there are jobs to be had!

We just returned from our annual "pre back to school" retreat in Breckenridge. It was a great break from the heat, highs in the 70's up there while it was almost 90 here in Colorado Springs. The 2 hour drive is really so worth it, it is such a great getaway. We usually book our lodging with Ski Country (http://www.skicountry.com/), they usually have a pretty good selection of rooms.

We took advantage of the Breckenridge Music Festival held every summer at the Riverwalk Center in Breck, and really enjoyed the symphony concert. We also had a surprisingly good meal at the The Dredge Restaurant, don't know why we had never tried it before. We always enjoy riding the chair lifts up and hiking down, and did that at both Copper Mountain and Breck. We were a little disappointed to see that Copper had done away with their free chair lift rides, it was $10 for the day, although my season pass from this past season got one of them free. Breck is $5 per ride. We skipped some of our usual favorites, like canoeing at Frisco Marina on Lake Dillon, doing the bike path from Breck to Frisco and over to Dillon, etc, but we still had a great time.

We missed the first sermon by our new pastor, Brady Boyd at New Life by being gone, but heard it went well, and we'll get more chances over the next couple of weeks. They have been good enough to post a special page for him to help people get aquainted, Click here to see New Life's Page on Brady Boyd, as well as hear some of his sermons.

The rain and hail yesterday was a wonderful cool down, I have to admit I am looking forward to more fallish weather soon!

Late summer is a good time to get a few things done in preparation for the busier fall schedule. One of the things we like to take care of is carpet cleaning, since we have more family members around to help move furniture etc. Jose at Blues Carpet Cleaning (494-1440) did his usual great work, I am always so amazed at how well he seems to get the stains and spills out.
Another long time friend, client and vendor helped us out this week. Barry Remple at Colorado Transmissions (522-1117) really kept us from a big mistake on a used car we were looking at buying for my son to drive. Prepurchase inspections (really not unlike the home inspections we are insistent on) are not really on their menu, but he has been very helpful in giving us the "straight scoop" on prospective vehicles, and I really appreciated his candor that resulted in not only not buying the vehicle, but helping us to be more precise in what we were looking for. For a bit more money, we ended up choosing a vehicle that was 5 years newer and had 60,000 fewer miles, and had been very well maintained.
This is also a good time of year (before heating season starts) to have the furnace cleaned and serviced, those guys get pretty busy come fall.
I have enjoyed the rain thunderstorms so much this week that I am just a little sad to see the hotter dryer air that has moved in for the next several days. The ragweed is blooming I think after all the rain, my allergies are kicking up again. On the other hand, we are headed to the moutains for a few days of R&R, so why should I care? We always look forward to a retreat at summers end, and this is the weekend!

Yesterday's storm was a true "frog choking rain" in Briargate. In Monument, I guess the hail was thick enough to look like snow on the ground. Summer thunderstorms are part of the fun of living in Colorado Springs, and yesterday's was textbook. Of course it cleared up enough to grill steaks and salmon for dinner, which is also part of the drill. 9 inches of rain so far this year, not bad. I think it bodes well for ski season.
School started this week in Falcon school district 49 (they are always the first), so the annual march back to the classrooms has already begun. Being married to a teacher makes this time of year unique, I can see the transformation as she starts thinking about school more and more. Our daughter has already checked into the dorms up at CSU (she is an RA, the kids aren't quite back yet). Locally, back to school time does mean watch for the CSPD, they are not forgiving when speeding in school zones, and above all, watch for kids crossing the streets!

The buzz this week has been the latest Colorado Springs real estate market statistics that are just out. Compared with last year, sales are down (down 14.9%), active listings are up (7065 single family homes, up 18%), and prices are still holding their own, the median (half above, half below) is up .9% at $227,000, which is actually a new record high. The average age of the inventory is up to 120 days, and at the current sales rate (which seasonally slows into the fall), we have 7 months supply of inventory. Compared with 2005 however, which is really when I mark the beginning of our current slowdown, the picture is bleaker. Inventory is up 59.3% and sales are down 22.3% from July of '05.
There are plenty of things that are going well however. Population and jobs are still growing. The roads are improving, I25 north of downtown is almost fun to drive on again, and the daily progress on the Woodmen and Powers interchange is quite a sight. The new stores and buildings that are going up are really quite exciting, like the newly opened Super Target at Powers and Union, the Super Walmart in Falcon, and the many other retailers and restaurants along Powers. Interest rates are low, commercial and apartment vacancies are falling, and we are even starting to see some of the troops arriving at Ft Carson, though still in small numbers. The new Fine Arts Center renovation is an added plus to the downtown scene, and the Bijou bridge will reopen within the next few months, all adding to a brighter tomorrow.
On top of all this, the Colorado Rockies are still in contention in the National League West, and the Denver Broncos are looking very promising this year, with Jay Cutler hopefully beginning a new era . It's still summer and we have afternoon thunderstorms almost every day that we missed during the recent drought years. Ski season is just around the corner again, with season pass sales starting up again next month. It looks like we may even have a new senior pastor at New Life Church soon!
What a great place to live, and what a great time to live here!