Colorado Springs Home Sales Jump BIG TIME!

Colorado Springs Home sales in November of 09 jumped 59.1% over last November! This is such good news, and the 4th month in a row of double digit increases. In fairness, last November was dismal, but even prices increased .3%, inventory of unsold homes is down, with the 'months supply' at 5.4, the 6th month in a row below the magic 6 month indicator of a 'normal' market. We in the real estate community are truly thankful for this turnaround. While all is not 100% well (the 90th percentile is still only $339,500), low interest rates and improving employment opportunities indicate a bright future for Colorado Springs. For more details, see the Colorado Springs Homes Sales Trend Data

Got questions about living in Colorado Springs? Call me at 719-590-4768 or 888-568-6784! www.facebook.com/rickvanwieren for more photos, www.twitter.com/rvanwieren for more frequent updates!

Colorado Springs Home Sales Jump Again!

Preliminary data indicates Colorado Springs home sales jumped 19.1% over 2008 for the month of October. While prices did not keep up (Average was down 7.2%, median down 1.1%), it does reflect the continuing improvement in our market. Factors contributing to the uptick are the continued impact of troops arriving at Ft Carson, the $8,000 First Time Home Buyers Credit (currently scheduled to expire 11/30/09), and terrific interest rates, still in 5% territory.

Today's photo was taken last week from our office, just after one of the snows we had. We've got a warm (60's) and dry forecast for the week, a welcome change from the cool and snowy October we had.

Got questions about living in Colorado Springs? Call me at 719-590-4768 or 888-568-6784! Visit me on Facebook to see even more photos!

Preliminary September Home Sales Data Look Strong for the Springs

Home sales for Colorado Springs in September were up 12.2% over last year at this time, according to preliminary figures. Prices were off 10.25% on average at $214,848, and median was down 5.0% at $189,900. On average, homes sold at 97.2% of the asking price. See the link on the menu for more details.

Fall weather changed yet again, after a weekend in the low 80's, it might hit 50 today, although the skies are clear blue and sparkly. Freeze warnings out for tonight, got to drain those sprinklers! The trees are getting quite pretty around town, although it seems different on every street. The maples and aspens seem to have got the lead so far. Todays photo was taken last year near Cripple Creek.

Got questions about living in Colorado Springs? Call me at 719-590-4768 or 888-568-6784! Visit me on Facebook to see even more photos!

Colorado Springs Home Sales Jump in August Over '08

The preliminary sales data from the Pikes Peak Association of Realtors indicates home sales in Colorado Springs for August of '09 to be up a whopping 14.5% over August of '08, while the inventory of unsold homes dropped 20.3% from 1 year ago. Prices are still on the soft side, but down only 5.4% from 1 year for the average, and only 2.5% for the median. The average home sold for 97.5% of the asking price. This is the strongest year to year gain in sales we've seen since I started tracking it several years ago. It is due to several factors, including:
1. Stronger demand from returning GI's to Ft Carson
2. The $8,000 first time Home Buyer Tax credit (which is due to expire in less than 3 months)
3. Low interest rates, still in the low 5's.
A more sobering look indicates prices and sales dropped from July, indicating that we may have seen our best sales month already this year, which follows our normal seasonal pattern.
Got questions about living in Colorado Springs? Call me at 719-590-4768 or 888-568-6784!

Housing Numbers Improve in Colorado Springs - Again!

For the 2nd month in a row, housing sales in Colorado Springs are up over last year. The July preliminary numbers show sales up a huge 6.8% over last July. While prices are still down from last year, they have increased every month since January, and continued that trend in July, with the average up to $231,457 and the median up to $199,500. That is a jump in prices of 16.5% since January! The 1st Time Homebuyer Tax Credit is starting to do some good here, along of course with some positive news on the job front locally, including new troop arrivals at Ft Carson and the new call center jobs on the west side. Is the recession over? Not sure about that, but it's sure getting better! Details are available from the Sales Trends link on the blog menu.

No that photo was not taken today, it was about a month ago, but reminds me of how the long the Peak held it's snow this year. It is, alas, bare of any snow now for about a month or so, until the fall starts.

Got questions about living in Colorado Springs? Call me at 719-590-4768 or 888-568-6784! Visit me on Facebook to see even more photos!

June '09 Colorado Springs Home Sales Looking Better

While the data is still preliminary, it looks like in June of 2009 we actually posted a year to year gain in home sales since last June of '08! Sales were up .7%, and while prices are still soft (down 12.2% for the average), the ratio of selling price to the list price has firmed up to 97.52%, indicating sellers are being pretty realistic in their pricing and not coming down as much in the negotiation. This may also be partially attributed to a smaller percentage of 'distressed' properties, these made up only 21.2% of June sales after peaking at 36.8% of January '09 sales.
Into the numbers? The following link provides more details and some graphs:
Colorado Springs Home Sales Data
It is another beautiful day in paradise here, with blue skies, cool morning temps (it was still in the 50's at 7), and a forecast high of 90, the hottest we've seen yet this year!
Got questions about living in Colorado Springs? Call me at 719-590-4768 or 888-568-6784! Visit me on Facebook to see even more photos!

Colorado Springs Real Estate Market Improved in May

Preliminary sales figures for the month of May show that Colorado Springs home sales improved, almost matching last years sales, down less than 1%. Prices firmed up as well, with the average (mean) jumping over 5% since April, and down only 12.2% from last May. The 'sale price to list price ratio' also jumped to 97.4%, closer to it's long term average. These are welcome statistics to those of us in the business, it has been a long time coming. We've still got a long way to go, but this is a real step in the right direction.

Today's photo of wildflowers was taken Saturday morning, a block from our house in Briargate. Perhaps not the best example, it still gives you a little idea of what I mean when I talk about the wildflowers blooming.

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

April 2009 Housing Numbers Improve For Colorado Springs

As of today, May 6 2009, the Colorado Springs home sales statistics are not yet final for April, but preliminary results show sales only 8.3% behind last April, the smallest year to year decline we seen in some time. Prices were still soft at a mean of $210,141, down 12.3% on average, driven by a stubborn presence of foreclosure and short sale properties. These 'distressed' properties still comprised at least 26.3% of sales for April, and while that is the lowest percentage since last September, the average price for these transactions is very low. There is a permanent link on this blog on right side called Colorado Springs Home Sales Data Trends that you can click on for more details.

This is article #301 on this blog. When I started writing it, I wasn't sure how often I could write. Given that there is always SOMETHING going on in Colorado Springs, I guess I should not have been worried! Today we will see temperatures approaching 80 degrees, and the leaves are out on almost every tree, so Spring has finally sprung. Today's photo was actually taken last May in Monument Valley Park.

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

Colorado Springs March Real Estate Sales Better, But Still Weak

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

February Home Sales A Little Better

The board (Pikes Peak Association of Realtors) doesn't release the final numbers for another week yet, but preliminary data for February Colorado Springs home sales show sales up from January, at 504 units, but still down 9.4% from last February. Prices also firmed up from January, with the average at $206,608, and the median at $177,500, down 8.9% and 10.1% respectively from February of 08, but both up from January. You can see more details by clicking this link: Colorado Springs Home Sales Trends
It was a beautiful day today, almost 60 degrees, and it is hard to remember that spring is a way off still, even though the time change is happening next Sunday already! March and April tend to be our snowiest months, and March is one of my favorite ski months. My brother is coming out for a ski vacation in a couple of weeks, I feel like I haven't skied hardly at all this winter, so this will be a great excuse! Tomorrow they say almost 70, what kind of winter is this? Even Pikes Peak is looking a little bare!

Ground Hog's Day

No, Ground Hog's day is not really a big deal here in Colorado Springs. Generally, he would always see his shadow here, because we get so much sunny weather. January and February are our driest months, with plenty of sun. This week is no exception, and we are now looking at some warm temps as well, with highs around 60 for a chunk of the week. While we could use some more snow, you won't find me complaining, this is so much better for showing property! Our snowiest months are March and April, I'm sure we'll see some more by then.
While it feels very busy, and the model home sites seem to be seeing an uptick in traffic, January statistics are likely going to show home sales down another 20+% from last January, and prices will take another hit, down 12-15%. Part of the problem seems to be the nature of the closing cycle, some of our higher end sales are under contract but not yet closed, and many January closings were written in December. February should be much better. We've had some very low interest rates for the last few weeks (although heading up a little), and the lending system has had a bit of rush to keep up.
That was quite a Super Bowl yesterday. I managed to see most of it after showing property all day and writing a contract, and unlike some years, this one was a great game no matter who you were rooting for.

December Colorado Springs Real Estate Sales Statistics

The preliminary numbers are in, and it was another brutal month on the statistics front, at least for sellers. In summary:
Unit Sales - down 23.1% from last December
Average Price - down 10.5% from last December
Median Price - down 16.2% from last December
The inventory of unsold units has dropped to its lowest level in 2 years, giving some hope that once we sell through the backlog of foreclosure properties, things should bounce back fairly well. Interest rates are great, prices are great, selection is great, so this is a great time to buy a house in Colorado Springs! Even the weather is great, it was almost 60 again yesterday!
For more complete statistics, click here.

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!

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.

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 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.

This weekend's takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has had the immediate effect of lowering mortgage interest rates (now closer to 6%), at least here in Colorado Springs. Apparently there has been a risk factor built into rates that has held them higher than they otherwise would have been. Interest rates and gas prices are both very hard for me to get my head around. With the discount rate at 2%, 6.5% mortgage rates did not make so much sense to me. And just like with gas, bad news seems to make them jump, but good news never has the equivalent effect on them going down. If gas prices dropped as much as crude oil has, we'd be at $2.75 - $3 per gallon, or perhaps even less! As it stands, locally we are closer to $3.50 per gallon, which is much better than $4, but not great.

Yesterday was our monthly sales rally, and there were a couple of interesting statistics discussed. The "high end" of our market is really still hurting, with only .6% of sales over $800k. 88% of sales are under $400k so far this year. The "sale to list price" ratio continues at over 97%, indicating that despite rumors of "great deals", the deal is on the asking price, not the result of people coming down huge chunks at the negotiating table.

The Colorado Springs home rental market made for an interesting conversation with the property manager for our north office today. We have separate property managers for each office, and our north office is just restarting the program, but he manages about 150 units, including 75 single family homes at present, and so I thought he would be a good data point.
Lots of my prospective clients ask about rentals, in case they can't find the right house, or want to build, and so the topic is pretty current. I was very surpised when he told me he does not have a single vacancy at the moment, and that all of his rentals are gone within 2-3 weeks of getting them. He also indicated that rental prices and terms have firmed up considerably. 0% vacancy?!
Being the numbers guy that I am, I did a quick check of our MLS bulletin board of single family rentals, and found there were only 593 "For Rent" properties posted, with an average rent of just over $1300 per month. That is approximately 8.9% of the total active listing inventory. I thought I would check a couple of the more popular areas (Briargate and Northgate) just to see what the numbers looked like there. There were 81 single family properties, with an average rent of just over $1600/mo. This was 10.2% of the active listing inventory. In fairness, we have a lot of new construction available in those areas right now, so the ratios are probably a bit skewed, but that did not seem like very many to me. There were 42 properties reported as being leased during July in that area, compared with 315 for the whole area.
Of course the rental inventory is very different from the listing inventory, in that a much larger piece of it is not listed or managed by an agent, but is offered by the owner, but I thought it was an interesting thing that the ones our north office property manager had were all rented right now. Another sign the market is turning here?

Colorado Springs July 08 real estate sale data is not official yet, but here is the preliminary data:

Single Family Home Sales 887 units, down 14% from last July

Median Price, $223,900, down 1.4% from last July, but up for the 6th month in a row

Average Price, $252,644, down 7.9% from last July, and down slightly from last month

Inventory 6600 units for sale, down 6.6% from last July

These figures show a mixed bag, with some recovery trends beginning to show, but the overall picture has not improved quite yet. Is it the eye of the storm, with more bad news yet to come, or is it a "flat spot" at the bottom of the curve, about to trend back up? Time will tell, but my hunch is with the flat spot theory. Foreclosure filings dropped last month, and it appears that new building permits are about to turn around as well.

Like numbers? The Sales Data Trends link on the right side of this blog has up to date data on sales trends and interesting ratios and graphs, updated regularly as data is released.

The heat wave is finally over after a week in the 90's (though we never really got there in Briargate some days)! What a gorgeous day today is. While even the hottest days have started off nice, I'm ready for more normal weather, and maybe some real afternoon thunderstorms again!