End of the Year 2008

Today was too nice a day not to get some outdoor stuff done, so I got my hot tub drained and cleaned this morning. Mid 50's, sunny, you can't beat it! I'd take down my Christmas lights too, but I have a thing about taking them down too early, it just does not seem right. I hate for Christmas to be over, when you get right down to it!
This was not a great year by some measures. Colorado Springs real estate sales, which is how I make my living, were down significantly. The line between making a living and not making a living can get a little blurry in these times! My mother in law's health problems have been an interesting new season for us. And I lost my own dad at New Years last year, so the year started with a pretty major funeral in our family history. And the Broncos and the Rockies both missed the playoffs (ok, not that big a deal).
But even a tough year had some nice silver linings. My 2 oldest sons completed some important educational milestones this year. Our newest granddaughter, Ashley was born. We have all been pretty healthy. We have survived the toughest year economically that I can remember. Heck, I even got a Wii for Christmas! Life is good in Colorado Springs :-)

Christmastime in Colorado Springs

We had a wonderful Christmas at the Van Wieren home this year, we hope yours was as well. We spent Christmas Eve at a candlelight service at New Life Church, and then a low key meal and a sampler of gifts with part of the family.

Christmas Day itself started with coffee and cinnamon rolls at home, and then a visit to my mother in law at the Life Care rehabilitation facility, where she is getting stronger and healthier by the day. We took today's photo there. She opened some gifts, and then we headed home to put on a beef roast and open gifts with everyone.

My kids were amazing, in that they decided, despite the tough economy and their own thin resources, to all chip in on a Nintendo Wii for me! I am a little famous for not giving very reasonable ideas for Christmas gifts, and I'm afraid they took me literally on this one. It is SOO much fun though, we are all enjoying it immensely, and it was such a complete surprise!

The weather here was dry, sunny and mild for Christmas day, and continues to be sunny, though not even 30 here today. We'll see 50 again for the next several days, so despite the mountains getting hammered with snow, we probably will lose what little had hung around from the last storm. The days are already getting longer, and the sun stronger.

Like in most places in the country, the malls were packed the day before and after Christmas. One of my sons works at Chick Fil A at Chapel Hills, and he has been very busy over the holidays.

Happy New Year!

WOW!

I have never seen an interest rate drop flow into the mortgage market as fast as this one has. The 3/4% rate cut by the Fed almost immediately flowed in to the mortgage market. My daily quote on 12-17 that I get from Dana Hines at Adams Bank was 4.75% with .25 discount point, and no origination fee.

I talked to someone who had been on an ARM for quite a while, and he told me that he had refinanced earlier in the year into a fixed, but the lender had stuck him with a 3 year prepayment penalty. These should be outlawed if you ask me, (which the congress never does). I have seen some pretty ugly scenes where unscrupulous loan officers have stuck unsuspecting clients with these things, locking them into situations that are just not right. A 2 or 3% penalty for moving or refinancing is just not neighborly!

Today's photo is of my grandson, Tyler, at his preschool's Christmas program last week. Some of our favorite memories of Christmas when the kids were growing up, were these kinds of programs. While his sheep outfit isn't going to win any Academy Awards for Costume Design, it was really fun to see the next generation repeating a great tradition!

Free Money?

The Fed's surprise decision to lower rates by 3/4 instead of 1/2 a point yesterday makes the cost of money for banks darn near free. So how do I get me some of that action? :-) It shows how serious they think the economic problems are, and that is good, because they are serious. Unemployment here in Colorado Springs is close to the national average at the moment, but may be rising with the newly announced layoffs at Atmel.
The ski season technically started over a month ago, but the mountains are finally getting a good series of storms, just in time for the holidays. The weather in the mountains is very different than it is here on the plains, despite the fact that Pikes Peak (at 14,110 ft) is so close. We often have sunny, breezy weather here when it it is dumping at the resorts 2 hours drive away (they expect 1-2 feet in the next 48 hours). It makes for a nice thing, in that we don't drive around in a lot of snow, but we can get to it fairly quickly when the mood strikes. Christmas Day looks like it will not be white, currently forecast for a high of 48 degrees and partly sunny. These things change quite a bit, so I'm not banking on THAT one yet, but since we hardly EVER have snow on Christmas, it isn't too far fetched.

The Big Chill

It was really cold here in Colorado Springs this weekend. Well, at least on Sunday and Monday. The weather was a fairly balmy and clear 50 degrees or so on Saturday (that was good, since I was out showing property most of the day :-), and then a cold front came through that dropped us into negative temps (it was -10 on our way to Denver airport on Sunday night!). Sometimes when it gets so cold, even with little snow, they will cancel or delay school, but not this time. The very cold temps with 3 inches of fresh snow had reasonable good traction to it. Although it was clear and sunny yesterday, it was still single digits most of the day. Thankfully it was already 25 degrees this morning, and warmer is expected, so like most weather here, whether you like it or not, it does not last long!
The Denver Broncos playoff prospects took a little hit on Sunday, with their loss to Carolina and San Diego's amazing comeback against Kansas City. If the Broncos don't win the division, it will be the most spectacular late season swoon in my memory anyway. They went into the game on Sunday with a 3 game lead with 3 games left, we'll see how it plays out.

Colorado School Report Cards Are Out

This week the state released the annual School Accountability Report. The Colorado Department of Education keeps some pretty good information on their web site (www.cde.state.co.us). They have tons of stats on every school (not just district) in the state, and this report kind of sums things up. One of the first criteria (after price range!) we recommend to buyers when looking for a home, is the school district. Everyone has to decide for themselves what is the most important aspect of that, and raw test scores are certainly not the whole picture. But the summary report in the Gazette on Tuesday (when this report was released) had some interesting tidbits.
1. On scale from Low to Excellent, some school districts came in with every school either High or Excellent, while others did not have a single school at that level. Academy D20 had all High and Excellent except for their alternative high school, Aspen Valley. Cheyenne Mountain D12 had all Excellent, except for Pinon Valley and Skyway were "only" rated High. The same for Lewis Palmer D38, only Grace Best and Palmer Lake Elementary were rated High, all their other schools were rated Excellent. Falcon district 49 had quite a few schools rate High, but no schools achieved Excellent. Harrison D2 had only one school that even rated High (James Irwin Charter School), and no schools that were rated Excellent. D11 has a huge number of schools, and only 6 were rated excellent. Of their 5 high schools, 3 were rated High (Palmer, Coronado and Doherty), and 2 were rated Average (Mitchel and Wasson)
2. Charter Schools (which we have been involved with for 13 years, my wife teaches at the Classical Academy) continued overall to do quite well, but it depended on the theme. The "academically rigorous" schools that include (for example) Cheyenne Mountain Charter, The Classical Academy, Monument Academy, Rocky Mountain Classical Academy, Colorado Springs Academy, Colorado Springs Early Colleges, etc all were rated High or Excellent. The more experimental and / or alternative schools did not do quite as well.
3. While there is not a really great set of statistics to back this up, the average home prices in these areas correlates pretty well with the school achievement levels. Cheyenne Mountain Schools District D12 has the highest home prices (avg $518k this year), Lewis Palmer D38 the 2nd highest ($411k), and Academy School District 20 the 3rd highest ($339). D49 was $233k, while D11 was only $203k. Which came first, home prices or school performance? Conventional wisdom and some national statistical analysis shows socioeconomic levels play a huge part in educational achievement. Where the parents are wealthier and better educated, the kids usually follow suit with better test scores.

Snow Day

Today was a snow day for Academy D20 schools in Colorado Springs. Because a portion of the district is in Black Forest, where the snow is typically deeper, more windblown, and in general not school bus friendly on snowy days, they tend to close or have late starts a little more often than for example, Colorado Springs School District 11, where it snows less, melts quicker, and is almost entirely city maintained streets. My wife loves these kinds of days, because as a school teacher at the Classical Academy in D20, she gets a day to catch up on other things, like wrapping Christmas presents, etc. Best of all, because we live more in town, the roads are usually not bad enough to really stay home, so she can even do some shopping! In the case of today, we probably had 3 or 4 inches in Briargate, and the sun is shining now, though it is only 23 degrees by noon! I usually work from home on these kinds of days anyway. Unless someone needs to sign something that requires an original signature, email phone and fax work just fine.
We have all wheel drive on both of our cars. For years I drove only front wheel drive, and occasionally got studded tires, but often a dry winter would just wear out the studs, and the extra traction was seldom an issue. The bigger problem with cars and winter driving in Colorado Springs is more stopping than going, and while the AWD tends to make the car handle better on snow and ice, my son managed to hit a curb last week with my wife's because he had not slowed enough for turn. Realignment is often required with these sort of mishaps, and in this case a new wheel as well, because the old one was bent. Yet another good reason to stay home until the roads melt a bit, often just an hour or 2 is all it takes!
Interest rates are holding in the mid 5's at the moment, exciting since usually these kinds of dips only last a day or 2 in this volatile market.

Yesterday's service at New Life Church in Colorado Springs was pretty somber, and yet hopeful and healing, as we commemorated the anniversary of the shooting death of 2 of our young members 1 year ago. It was an amazing service really, and Pastor Brady Boyd did a great job covering the subject of Good Grief (available for online listening at the New Life link above). David Works, who lost 2 of his daughters and was himself wounded, spoke for a few minutes, and then Pastor Brady delivered his sermon. The church is dedicating a memorial to Rachael and Stephanie Works tomorrow afternoon. Because the church is so large, this tragedy affected many people, and listening to a father share about the loss of his daughters a year ago, just before Christmas, drew tears from many of us, myself included.
You can see from today's photo (taken yesterday) that the meltoff from our last storm is pretty complete in all but the north facing yards. It is pretty common for the sunny areas to get melted and dried up fast, one of the better arguments for a south facing driveway. Today we are under a winter storm watch, we'll see what this one does.

Colorado Springs is having an "up and down" winter so far. We've had a couple snow events since Thanksgiving, but we are in our 2nd day above 50 this weekend, before another snow event tomorrow night. It makes some interesting observations as your drive around town as well. I was driving by Patty Jewett golf course yesterday with my windows down, and noticed a number of people playing. When I got back to the house in Briargate, 15 minutes north, there is still snow hanging around on the ground almost everywhere except the streets and south facing driveways. I think I better get my lights up while the getting is good, I'm guessing the opportunities are diminishing as time goes along :-)

The Christmas gift of dropping gas prices every week seems to have run its course. After hitting a low of $1.429, we are up to $1.499 at our favorite station.

Today's photo is another from several years ago of the foxes that hand out at Patty Jewett. While I took this quite a while ago, my recollection was that there is a golf ball in his mouth.

Colorado Springs foreclosure and distressed properties are not as prevalent as in some areas of the country, but we have our share. Last month the bank owned and distressed properties made up 34.5% of our sales, which is why prices appear to be down so far. When digging behind the numbers, I discovered something interesting (at least to me!). Homes with more than 2500 finished square feet were only 14.5% of the "distressed" sales, and when looking for more than 3000 finished square feet, it was only 9.3% of the mix. What that means to me is that our averages are being drawn down a lot by homes that are both distressed and on the smaller side. Larger homes are not as big a part of either the distressed "pool", or of the kinds of homes being sought by investors or bargain hunters. Homes that have larger areas for living space are much more likely to be a normal sale, and likely to be owner occupied after sale.

The El Paso County Trustee's office does a nice graph of foreclosure trends for Colorado Springs, here is the link to the current report: El Paso County Foreclosure Report

We got a dusting of snow overnight, but it is expected to pick up a bit during the day, with another couple of inches supposedly coming. Given how cold it is (it was 18 degrees this morning), it is very light and more "broom" type than shovel type snow.

Today's photo was taken from Highway 9 south of Hoosier Pass in June. I thought of it as ski season is finally getting underway, with over 30 inches of base at many resorts. I like it closer to 40 myself, as the rocks are still showing some at 30, but with it being all nice and fresh, I am getting the itch to go! Vail reportedly got 24 inches this week, there should be some nice stashes of powder for while now. I love the web cams they have at many resorts, here is Copper Mountain's.

Preliminary data on Colorado Springs real estate sales in November indicate unit sales for single family homes are down 25.2% from last year, and the average price of $215,470 was 14.5% below last November. These are not good numbers, but keep in mind that the election was pretty much on every one's mind during the October period when most of these sales were put together (or should have been putting together:-). Also, interest rates have improved quite a bit, to 5.5% in the last week, so there is at least some reason to be optimistic about the future! For more details about Colorado Springs Homes Sales Data Trends, click in the link on menu on the right side of this screen.
The weather has turned cold and gray, with snow in the forecast. Quite a bit melted off yesterday in the 60 degree sunny breezy weather, but not all of it. Once again, they are not predicting a lot of snow, but we'll see....
Yesterday we did the inspection on a bank owned property that is only 2 years old, scheduled to close this month. With the house being so new, we were kind of surprised to find a problem with a tankless water heater the prior homeowner had installed. In El Paso County, you are supposed to get a building permit and inspections for this sort of thing, and they did not do either. The new buyer is extra handy and knowledgeable of such things, so it was not a show stopper, but it goes to show how even newer construction can have quirks. This could have been a major safety issue for a buyer, as the venting for both water heaters was partially disconnected, allowing exhaust gases into the living areas.
I could not decide on a photo for today, so I left it off. I'd love to hear suggestions of things you may want to see photos of!

Over a foot of snow in Black Forest! The Colorado Springs weather forecasters even admit they really missed this one, they were predicting 1 inch originally. Living in Colorado Springs means living with snow and uncertain weather forecasts sometimes. There are a few easy coping mechanisms.

1. Don't sweat it. If you have to postpone something because of weather, try to enjoy it and don't fret, it's part of the "spice of life".

2. Be prepared for it. Even when the weather man gets it wrong, they usually have a clue something is going on. During the winter season, bring an extra layer of clothes, never leave without coat, hat and gloves, throw boots and a shovel in when going out in questionable weather. It all improves your odds of not being as impacted even if you do get stuck. Stock up the cupboards. There is no point in getting stuck in the snow during a storm just because you need an extra cup of sugar or gallon of milk.

3. Remember that "this too shall pass". After a foot of snow on Sunday, it is a beautiful blue sky day today, and we are expecting 60 degrees by tomorrow. Although it won't all melt off this late in the year, it will definitely be less of an issue, and the roads will be cleaned off pretty well.

Today's photos are of some trees in our back yard this morning that caught some nice snow. What a great way to begin December and the Christmas season!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Colorado Springs. After some teaser snow storms just after Thanksgiving, we got a real one today - and as usual, they did not predict it. I would guess maybe 8-12 inches? It was nice fluffy stuff, perfect powder for skiing, and easy to shovel, thankfully! My wife and college age son are hoping for a snow day tomorrow, we'll see. If it quits early enough in the evening, the plows get the school bus routes cleared, they will have school anyway. It could still be a late start though. That is when the kids don't go in until 10 or so, to give the plows a chance to do their job. It should be a gorgeous morning, with fresh snow and sunshine.
Hope your Thanksgiving was as good as ours! We had our usual family group, less a couple of families (between work, hospital stays and in laws, it gets harder as time goes on to have everyone at once), and had some guests who were new to the Springs, so it was very nice. I ate too much - as usual, before and after "the feast". I guess it will be a busy month on the tread mill for me!

People looking to buy a home in Colorado Springs were given a little holiday gift yesterday, with an unexpected drop in interest rates. I got one client locked at 5.5% yesterday, hopefully it won't change much today! For all the attention that things like stimulus checks get, lower gas prices and interest rates really make more of a difference in terms of people's ability to buy things. The difference between 6% and 5.5% on a $300,000 mortgage was $95.28 every month. Over the course of a 30 year mortgage, that is $34,300!

We are also supposed to get another holiday gift on Thanksgiving day, some snow. It has been warm and dry here for almost a month, and it will be nice to have some wintery weather to welcome in the holiday season. For Colorado residents, there are still some season pass deals to be had, Copper Mountain in particular is still available for $369 for the season, a great deal on my favorite mountain.

One of our traditions on Thanksgiving is to go around the room and have everyone share what they are thankful for. One the many things I am thankful for is the opportunity to live in this great state, and sell real estate for a living. While this is certainly not my best year in the business, I am so grateful I get to do what I do!

Today's photo is from Prospect Lake again. This goose is undoubtedly thankful he is NOT part of someones holiday feast!

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.

Like most towns, Colorado Springs has it's share of families that unite over the holidays. Our daughter came home for Thanksgiving, and today she and I went for a walk around Prospect Lake at Memorial Park between hospital visits to my mother-in-law. It was a very pleasant day today (50's and sunny), and there were lots of birds out on the water. So many in fact, that we decided that many of them had also travelled for the holiday. I love the holidays, they make such a great excuse to just hang out and do the things you should be doing more often - like taking a walk along a beautiful lake with your kids!

We have LOTS of luxury homes for sale right now in Colorado Springs. Yesterday was our tour of luxury homes for the south end of town. Our office's Luxury Home Professional designation requires us to attend a monthly tour, and there were some beauties this time!

My favorites were of course the most expensive, after all, what is not to like about a $2.5 million home? Here is a link to the homes we viewed: RE/MAX Properties Luxury Home Tour

These homes are all in the Southwest area of town, which is often locally referred to as the Broadmoor area, named for the The Broadmoor, our only 5 star rated hotel and resort, and home of this years Senior PGA Open. Check out the link, they have some gorgeous photos on this site that really set the stage for what this area is like.

Technically the southwest area falls into 3 school districts, but the main portion of the area, and the one I am going to talk about today is the portion that is School District 12 (Cheyenne Mountain). It consistently has the highest test scores of the entire area. There are actually lots of sub areas to this section of town, including the flat, large lot (and large home!) areas near the resort itself (Old Broadmoor), newer hillside homes in the Broadmoor Bluffs, the Skyway area (upper and lower), gated areas such as Stratton Preserve, etc.

The foot hill setting, plentiful wildlife (there was even a bear on the course for the TV cameras this summer at the Open), and aristocratic feel make this area a special place. Some of the best (and most beautiful) parks in Colorado Springs are in this area, including Bear Creek Park, Cheyenne Mountain State Park, and Cheyenne Canyon. This area features some of the best hiking and mountain biking in the city as well.

A cold front came through last night, and we went from sunny sixties to overcast 30's with some freezing frizzle.

After living here in Colorado Springs for 17 years, I didn't think there were a lot of things I did not know about our town, but I discovered one this week at the old St Francis Hospital on Pikes Peak Ave, just east of the downtown, west of Memorial Park. My mother-in-law is staying there for a while for recovery from surgery and other maladies, in the Select Long Term Care Hospital. What I discovered was a cafeteria with what I think is the best view of the city I have seen, at least for a place that serves lunch. Gazette employees have known about if for years, and even get a discount. The food is inexpensive, though not terribly healthy, but the view is why you go there, if you aren't visiting relatives in the hospital!

Can you believe gas was $1.65 this morning! I don't think it has been that low for years. I am not a conspiracy theorist as a rule, but the run up this summer, just before the election, really makes me wonder, who might have wanted to manipulate the oil market to such an extent? It is hard for me to believe that simple supply and demand are causing these kinds of swings.

Mortgage interest rates were down this morning, a pleasant side effect of more turmoil on Wall Street. With no points, 6 3/8%, lower with discount points. It seems like a reasonable place to be right now with the economy where it is. Lower would be even better!

I hate to keep repeating myself about the weather, but wow what a nice day, supposedly tying a record high of 73 degrees for November 18. It could just as easily be 23, and snowing at that!

I was able to help several families get a step closer to living in Colorado Springs last week. One of them now has a house under contract, one knows which house they probably will buy, when they get their job situation settled over the next month or so, and one knows where they want to be when they get their current house sold. I enjoy working with new residents a lot. This is such a great place to move to, it is always a treat to see them smile at the great views, nice (or at least interesting!) weather, or other opportunities that develop for them.
The gorgeous mild sunny weather we've been having reminded me of earlier in the fall when I caught this elk napping under a tree up in Estes Park. I think if he had had an IPOD, he would have been listening to John Denver's Sunshine On My Shoulders :-)

#1 I need to correct a prior post on Colorado Springs cost of living items. Gas has dropped to $1.92 at the nearby local gas stations. I actually saw one station drop their prices 3 times in 24 hours this week!

#2 Yesterday we had an extended briefing from John Tuccillo, former chief economist for the National Association of Realtors yesterday. He had a couple of uplifting items, and some not so much

a. He indicates we are in a "garden variety" recession, not any sort of "depression", and expects the country will be completely out of it in 2010, with some pockets recovering sooner. He expected national unemployment to top out at 8%.

b. Because of all the bail out expenses, new government programs, etc, he expects interest rates to get all the way to 8% as well (we are currently at 6%, and it may trickle even a little lower in brief pockets). For that reason, he indicated anyone who can, should be looking at buying sooner as opposed to later.

c. He believes that the FHA loan limits that are currently scheduled to expire at 12/31/08 will be extended, and that the first time home buyer tax credit may be extended and expanded as well, in the lame duck session of congress.

d. He expects an expansion of households (and by extension, homes sales) to emerge once the economy gets back on track, and home sales will come "roaring back".

It was a productive session, and I was once again reminded what a great brokerage RE/MAX Properties is to be able to have such a high caliber speaker for our monthly sales meeting!

Today's photo was taken in the fall several years ago at Patty Jewett Golf course, in downtown Colorado Springs. The foxes have always been pretty bold and plentiful there, feeding on unsuspecting geese that frequent the water hazards, and handouts from golfers.

Hospitals shouldn't be thought of as resorts or hotels or anything, but with a view like this, you can see why someone might get them confused. Today's photo is of the view of Pikes Peak from Colorado Springs city owned Memorial Hospital Central. Some of the rooms in the upper stories can even see the Garden of the Gods. We've spent some extra time there this week for my mother in law. After a very successful shoulder replacement, she developed some other issues that have resulted in her needing to be readmitted for a while.
She started out at the Emergency Room at Memorial North (at Union and Briargate Parkway), which was so close to our house in Briargate that I actually walked home while my wife stayed with her longer. Unfortunately, due to her need for kidney dialysis, they have had to move her to Central (there is no renal unit at North), so we are back to the extra 20+ minutes of driving each way to visit her. This commute is about to improve, as the overpass of Austin Bluffs over Union is done, and the "cone zone" almost ready to completely disappear. That has been a long time coming, but should really speed up both the north-south and east-west flow of traffic. Memorial Central is right next to the Olympic Training Center (at Boulder and Union), and is a landmark building here.

The forecast snow never did show up, but the cold did! It is a brisk 28 degrees or so out this morning, and even colder forecast overnight tonight.

The election is finally over. I won't recap election results for Colorado Springs here (here is a link if you want some of that: Colorado Election Results), but a couple of things seem worth mentioning.

1. Most tax increases were shot down, whether school related or not. Exceptions were Academy School District 20 and Fountain - Fort Carson School District 8, which both got approvals for their ballot measures.

2. While the numbers for the state showed a shift to the Democratic side, that was less so here, with still 57% of the county voting Republican on the presidential ticket.

Like most elections, I suspect that when all the dust settles and speeches are over, not a lot will really change from this one either.

The thing that I hope DOES change, is that people can get back to focusing on living life. Much like after 9-11, the financial market problems and election news have been great distractions. Hopefully they can start thinking about buying houses again, especially in such a great place as Colorado Springs.

We are expecting some snow showers today, and much cooler weather. We'll see if it shows up. Weather forecasters in Colorado are the only people I know of who can be wrong most of the time and still have jobs!

Today's photo is of 2 of my grandkids on Halloween night. Now THERE is the future for you!

When you first move to Colorado Springs, there are some good reasons to rent a place sometimes. Here are a few:

1. Getting to know the area. While this is generally a "30 minute town" (30 minutes north to south, east to west), there are lots of neighborhoods and school districts, and if you don't have time to get a little familiarization first, it can be helpful sometimes to rent first until you feel like you know the town better.

2. You aren't staying long. If your sojourn here is going to be only 2 years or less, and you know that up front, it is a safer bet to rent instead of buying.

3. You have bad credit. I don't mean a couple of blips, I mean BAD. If your credit score is under 620 these days, you may HAVE to rent.

4. You have very little income to work with. The landlords are more likely to let you spend your whole paycheck on rent than the banks.

5. Your job security is not good. If you think you are prone to getting to getting laid off or fired soon, a rental with as short of a lease as possible is probably better to keep you "light on your feet" in case something happens.

6. Your down payment is tied up in a house that is not yet sold. While there are some good ways to work around this, sometimes you just have to wait it out.

There are some caveats to these arguments of course.

1. Because of the way our MANY school districts work, even if you rent when you first arrive, if you have kids, you will probably want to make a school district decision that can last, because otherwise you may not only be moving more than once, you may end up in different schools and school districts in the process.

2. For a given comfort level, you are not going to save a TON by renting. Rents tend to run about the same as the interest rates, so a $250,000 house is going to rent for around $1250 - $1400 per month. The same house can usually be bought for a similar house payment, allowing that maintenance, taxes and insurance can make it slightly more per month, even with very little down. After a few years, the rent while likely be higher, the house payment will not be.

3. If you have pets, you are much more restricted in the places you can rent.

4. Moving twice can be a royal pain!

Preliminary sales statistics for October homes sales show sales down 10.2% from last October, and prices down 5.4%. With all the uncertainty of the financial markets and the election, I'm actually a bit surprised it isn't worse. My personal opinion is that life will settle down after the election, and people will go back to buying and selling.

Our summery fall weather is supposed to cool off a bit this week. I actually had to turn my sprinklers back on yesterday because the grass was getting crunchy already since our little snow of a week or 2 ago.

Today's photo is of my wife Holly, on the New Santa Fe Trail on Saturday, where the trail hits the south entrance to Air Force Academy. This is a very pretty, easy piece of walking and we enjoyed the 70+ degree weather on Saturday.

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.

It was a very summery weekend here in the Springs, a great time to enjoy the outdoors. We attended an outdoor wedding up in Parker on Saturday night, which was a gutsy move, but it came off without a hitch. Evenings start to get cooler, along with arriving earlier this time of year, so evening outdoor events start getting a little less common.

I have another closing tomorrow, and need to do a walk though for the client. Standard practice here (and a stipulation in the standard real estate contract) allows the buyer to do a last minute walk through inspection of the property to make sure that inspection issues are complete, the house is appropriately clean and empty, no damage has been done to the property, and utilities are still on. Neither the buyer or the seller will be at closing, the seller moved out several months ago, and the buyer arrives at the end of the week. "Mail Out" closings are pretty common these days, and usually go quite smoothly.

The above video clip is a bit shaky, but it was taken Friday up in Rocky Mountain National Park, where the elk rut is in full swing. The eerie high pitched squeal of elk bugling is repeated often in the fall, and adds to the fun of seeing these magnificent animals "up close and personal".

Rocky Mountain National Park is about 2 1/2 hours away from Colorado Springs. I had not been up there for some time, and yesterday decided to go elk hunting there - with my camera of course. It is surprising to me that we don't go more often. I can't say enough good things about the spectacular scenery, incredibly abundant wildlife, and the serenity of the place. Fall is the absolute perfect time to go. I got so many good photos, I'll spread these out over some time.
I have to say it was nice to get some time away with my cell phone off. With all the wrangling going on in Washington over the "bailout package", it was probably going to be a quiet day anyway!

Normally when I think of fall colors, I think aspen trees. But lately, fields of purple wild flowers have been blooming all over the Colorado Springs area, so I thought I had better get a picture or 2 before they fade. The above shots were taken yesterday at the corner of Union and Briargate Parkway, kitty corner from the new Memorial Hospital north campus. There is a large (100+ acres) open space that eventually is supposed to be a park. For now, it is used primarily by joggers, and in the winter the kids love to sled down the hill if there is enough snow. The building in the center is Academy International Elementary, the designated elementary school for school district 20 's International Baccalaureate (IB) program. It is very popular, one of the more difficult ones to "choice" into, as it is also the neighborhood school for the Summerfield area, an established neighborhood where prices range from the low 300's to the low 400's.

There has been a lot of talk about energy going around these days, locally as well nationally. Colorado Springs rates very high on many national surveys, but we are not the "greenest". There is so much land east of here to dump our waste, that recycling has never really taken off here. In addition, our proximity to the Wyoming coal fields and great rail access has made coal the fuel of choice for producing electricity. And the city is so spread out, with employment centers not being clustered very well, that mass transit is really used mostly by people who don't have cars (with a few exceptions), leaving everyone else in a "one person, one car" commute. Ironically, our historical utility costs are some of the lowest in the country, and our air among the cleanest, so we must be doing something right. There is good opportunity to develop wind energy east of here, and I suspect that wind will be the way the city comes into compliance with the state guidelines of having 10% of our power coming from renewable energy sources by 2020. Also, many of our homes are newer, and the new ones being built are mostly Energy Star rated, so we don't have a lot of homes leaking mass amounts of heat. In addition, our climate makes it easy not to run the furnace or the AC for much of the year, so in that regard, we are naturally blessed with a fairly energy efficient setting. Now if we could just fix all those huge pickup trucks and SUV's we tend to drive to get better mileage..... :-)
Sometimes having a few photos to share is reason enough to write. This was taken last Saturday near Cripple Creek, and you can there is still plenty of green, indicating it was really just the beginning of the color season. There are large stands of aspen with no trace of yellow yet.

We closed on a bank owned home on Friday. Distressed / foreclosures were 23% of the market in Colorado Springs in August. It was actually one of the smoothest foreclosure home deals I've done, but it was still not without it's moments. These deals all use Denver title companies, so if there are any changes to the figures, checks to be written, etc, it is tough getting help during the closing. For some reason the seller never has signed off their paperwork ahead of time either, so we ended up sitting around for 2 hours waiting for the seller to sign so the keys could be given to the buyer (who had help coming to unload her POD). It is hard when you can't count on everyone to execute on time with these, but we got through it, and the buyer got a very good value.
Today is the first day of fall, and what better symbol of fall in Colorado than a herd of elk? We spotted these right off Highway 24 on Saturday, just west of Woodland Park, before Divide. I've only spotted elk along this stretch of road a few times in the 17 years we've lived here, so it was a treat to have them out in the late afternoon sun posing for us. It is supposed to hit 83 today, which is unseasonably warm for this time of year.
What another crazy Bronco win yesterday. This is an interesting team, with the highest scoring offense, and most scored against defense in the league. I like the offense side of that, but the defense is making me crazy. How big a lead can they fritter away? Still, it is good to start the season 3-0.

The fall color season in the mountains above Colorado Springs has begun. I say begun, because while there are stands like the ones shown above, much of the aspen forest is still very green. Unless we get some nasty windy weather, this promises to be a longer color season, which is great! This shot was taken on 9-20-08, right on Highway 67 near Cripple Creek.
We got some other good shots yesterday while we up there, but I am going to share them over the next few days, so stay tuned.
Fall marks a change in the real estate market here as well. There is a kind of seriousness that grows, less "looking for fun", and more focused buying. The inventory shrinks, as less serious sellers leave the market place. Not that activity stops. In fact, the fall months tend to run at about 2/3 the sales rate that the peak summer months run, so it is still a busy season, it just has a different tone to it.
I'm anxious to see how much of a difference this big bailout program will make in business conditions. Ideally, interest rates will stabilize at a lower level, say the mid 5's, and buying activity will pick up as people realize that this is the time to make their move.

"This too shall pass" has become one of my favorite sayings of late. With the housing market being in the tank for going on 2 years, financial markets being in turmoil, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continuing, gas prices being high, etc, "This too shall pass" seems like a great way to deal with some of the adversity that can't be solved directly.

Personally, I believe the prospects for Colorado Springs are excellent. Very few places have a the combination of being this beautiful, having such a pleasant climate, and yet also having a pretty "going concern" economy. It's a great place to raise kids, or retire, or get started in life. For the physically active, there is about every kind of outdoor recreation opportunity imaginable. For the couch potato, lots of spectator events (not to mention just looking out the window!) And it is pretty affordable, below the national average for cost of living.

Unemployment is a little higher than we'd all like right now, running around 6%, but like I said before, "This too shall pass."

Today's photo is from 2 years ago, taken in our front yard after the first fall snowstorm, just before Halloween. 2006 was an extra tough winter as it turned out, but this was a good illustration of how it can go from fall to winter kind of quick here. It all melted pretty fast, but you can see it was a good pile of snow that fell. Today will be upper 70's and sunny again :-)

On the way back from Falcon this week I got this shot of the pronghorns out on the prairie, just at the turnoff for the soccer fields. They kind of took off all at once, but I liked how they were kind of bunched up nice, and all standing up. Some day they won't be there anymore, as the houses from the Banning Lewis will gradually fill it all in, so I figure I shoot these when I can!
What a wild week already in the money markets. While all this craziness of Lehman Brothers, Merril Lynch and AIG is helping interest rates go down for the moment, I hate to see the whole credit and investment system melting down. The irony is that a year or 2 from now, the banks who are buying up these deals will be even richer than ever.
We are having a great week of early fall, with cool nights and warm sunny days. The leaves should start turning in the high country soon, always a treat for me!

I hate to see a football game that is really decided by bad officiating, but the Bronco win over San Diego yesterday was an exception. After all, it was the Chargers, and the Broncos won! Football season is off to a good start for Colorado Springs fans. Air Force is 3-0 and the Broncos are now 2-0 (although it was a pretty dicey win yesterday). Both teams did put on a good show, 39-38 is a lot of scoring. This blog is not really about football, but that was a game to remember.

The sun is back out after a pretty rainy day on Friday. I have to go check out a house under contract that sprung a leak in the basement. These kinds of things are more common than they should be, in part because often the drainage system for the foundation of a house gets "messed with", either by feeding water to the foundation (such as downspouts that are not tipped back out after mowing), or other such things. I always hate it when there are problems like this, especially since a bank owns this house and they are not very good about getting around to taking care of things.

Today's photo is a symbol of the fall, but was taken over Memorial Day up in Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument (about an hour away?) My son in law is a bow hunter, and he actually filled his tag his first day out this year. We have LOTS of deer and elk in the region, though the elk are considerably more shy.

PULLING TOGETHER - Once in a while something really good happens, and I thought I'd share a story from just a couple of weeks ago. We had a contract come in on a listing that was preapproved by GMAC Mortgage. As a reputable lender with a reputable loan officer, this was all good. The first clue we had a problem was when the appraiser called 2 days before closing, wanting access to the house. Not a problem, we got him in, and the loan officer was pretty sure we would close on time. The morning of closing, we were told we would have to delay til the next morning. Then afternoon. Finally, at 4pm on a Friday afternoon, we discovered they had never even finished processing the loan. This is where the good part comes in.

I do all of my closings for my listings at Peoples Title. Sally Shelton, my closer, has been doing my closings for years, and I have always joked about her "saving my bacon" more than once. This ended up being one of those cases. Realizing the lender had completely dropped the ball, Sally suggested we get Peoples Bank involved. They have their own mortgage department, and everyone was still there (GMAC said their staff was no longer available to finish the job). We got the loan transferred, and completely underwritten by Peoples Bank of Colorado Springs, within 3 hours. Although we were so far past banking hours we could no longer close and fund that night, the successful closing was the next business day. The buyer was being deployed to Iraq the following day, so needless to say, there were a lot of happy people as a result of the great job done by Sally Shelton on the closing end, and Sharon Walker (719-548-5148!) on the loan origination end of that one, not to mention to the underwriter who stayed until almost 8pm on a Friday night. It was really good to see a group of people work so hard to make something good happen for both the buyer and the seller. OBTW, GMAC announced it was closing all of it's retail branches the day after we closed.

Todays photo was some columbine up in Breckenridge. I thought flowers were a fitting symbol of the day, 9/11. Everyone remembers where they were when the news came in that day. I was on the way to our monthly sales meeting at a local hotel. The images on the TV screens in the lobby were horrifying, and I still cannot bear to watch the replays of those planes crashing into the World Trade Center.

In the middle of this rancorous election process, I can't help but remember back fondly of those days immediately following 9/11 when we all seemed to pull together for a while.