Water Supply Key to Growth

One of the ongoing local political struggles is something called the Southern Delivery System, an ambitious project to pipe water from the Arkansas River up to Colorado Springs. The city has the water rights, but the not the means to deliver it - yet. A backup route was approved yesterday by Fremont County that makes it more likely than ever that it will happen, effectively keeping the city of Pueblo from having a veto over the project.
In a climate that yields less than 16 inches a year of precipitation, water is important. Our water supply is primarily melting snow from the mountains west of here, and the Arkansas River happens to drain some very high snow producing terrain. Battles over water rights have waged for decades all over the west, and the competing interests of growing population centers, recreational users and agriculture all have merit. My hope is that this settles out with a good balance that preserves something for everyone, and does not end up as a big "win - lose".
The dry warm weather we are having this winter here in the Springs (it was 65 yesterday, and will be over 60 again today) is not helping the water supply. People are going to be watering their lawns if we don't get some snow!

#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.

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.

"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 :-)

Colorado Springs got some good news on the economic front in this morning's Gazette. The 1st was kind of expected, the US Olympic Committee is expected to accept the city's proposal to keep them here for another 25 years. The USOC, the Olympic Training Center, and the associated National Governing Bodies are kind of a big deal, and it is a relief to get this negotiation out of the way.
The 2nd piece of good news was a little surprising, and was tempered by some offsetting news. Job growth was surprisingly strong, and they said we have added 7000 jobs in the last year, or 1.9%. The offsetting news was that unemployment was actually up, to 5.5%. Who knows how good these figures could have been if we were back on a decent pace of home sales and bulding?
This may be a result of "trailing spouses" (my own theory) adding jobhunters to the pool. Many of the military families who come here (although this is not a "military only" issue), and a higher percentage of the less senior ranks, are 2 income families. When a soldier is transferred to Ft Carson (or Peterson AFB, Shriever SFB, Cheyenne Mtn or the Air Force Academy), their spouse often has to seek employment in the local economy, enlarging the potential work force. Ft Carson is in a growth spurt for a while, so employment and unemployment may both continue to grow.

This is a special day for us, our newest grandbaby is scheduled to be born today. Of course you never know for sure until it happens, but they are planning on inducing labor, so the odds go up considerably!
The weather seems to be warming up a bit after a cold winter, we should be back in the 50's today. March and April are our snowiest months normally, so we have no illusions that winter is close to over (the best skiing is still ahead of us!), but the warm sunny days are a nice break that you kind of expect when you live here. I did not ski this weekend, Presidents Day is kind of a zoo up in the mountains with all the kids off from school, but maybe after the next storm.
The new Costco at Barnes and Powers opens tomorrow. I am a little skeptical as to how much better of a shopping option it will be over Sam's, but I like choices, so we'll see. A lot of people seem to be waiting for it like it will change the city, the Gazette even gave it front page coverage today. Maybe that says more about the lack of news than it does about Costco! We'll see.

Yesterday was our annual awards ceremony at RE/MAX Properties. It was surprising to me that I came in #11 out of 275 agents, given that it really was a pretty tough year. I have hopes for a stronger 2008, and have mentioned the rationale for them in this space before, but they bear some repeating.
1. Interest rates are in the mid 5's, which is great
2. We are starting to get some of our troops home to Fort Carson who have been on deployment in Iraq
3. Fort Carson is growing
4. Some our private sector employers seem to be growing
5. Colorado Springs is an awesome place to live!
They are calling our weather today "the warm before the storm", with highs in the 50's today, and the 20's tomorrow. It's always interesting at least!
We celebrated our Valentine's Day a little early last night, with dinner at the New South Wales Restaraunt. I have to say we were a little disappointed. The food wasn't bad, it just wasn't special. I had the rib eye steak, and Holly had a fish with some kind of artichoke sauce on it. They had been closed for a while with all the construction at I25 and Nevada, and have only recently reopened. Hopefully things improve for them, it is really a good location, and the menu looked like it should be very good.

T Rowe Price has opened their second Briargate facility. There was a nice write up on this in today's paper, and since I drive by this facility almost daily, I thought I should mention one of the bright spots on the Colorado Springs economic horizon. They expect to add another 700 employees or so over the next several years (they have around 675 now). See T Rowe Price Careers web page for more info. Other financial services firms with a large presence here include Progressive Insurance and USAA Insurance. Progressive in particular has also grown their local presence a lot in the last few years.
I don't know about you, but -12 is a bit cold to me, and I was shocked to see that for the low this morning here. At our own house it was only 2 below zero at bed time, and 1.6 degrees at breakfast, but cold is cold! They actually closed school yesterday, not really over the snow (although there was a little), but because the wind chill was forecast below zero all day! Fortunately we don't have too many days like this, and while it will be colder than average for several days now, the sun is out and should be a little more comfortable without the wind.

Pikes Peak must have gotten at least a little snow off this last storm, it looked mighty fine yesterday from the parking lot at New Life Church, so I snapped this one before going in. It is hard to believe we are expected to be in the upper 50's and low 60's again for much of the week, this is December after all.

Yesterday was the unofficial end of the season for the Broncos. While not mathematically out of it, they are for all intents and purposes, out of playoff contention. 4 turnovers? Yikes!

I now have a serious urge to play hooky and go skiing. I like a minimum of 25 inches of base, and Breckenridge finally has it. It might have to wait a few more days because, after all, there is work to do, but it won't be long now.

Yesterday's paper showed that we are now at 3.9% unemployment in the Springs. That is a great number, and will hopefully fuel the housing market again.