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.

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.

We wrote a contract for another new build this week, in the Falcon area, northeast of Colorado Springs. The ability to get a nice new home on a 1/2 acre lot in the mid 300's is still very attractive. I think the builder wrote 3 contracts this week on that site.

Fall weather has set in here, it was not even 60 degrees yesterday, though today should be back above 70 at least. Our normal fall pattern is for sunny warm dry days and cool nights, broken up by a series of cold fronts that progressively bring the temperatures lower until our first snow storm, usually by Halloween. Perfect football weather!

With Democratic Party Convention in Denver last week, I guess it was only fitting that John McCain and Sarah Palin would make Colorado Springs one of their first stops after the Republican Convention. They were expecting a big crowd at the airport today as the campaign kicks off in earnest. Enthusiasm for the race seemed to pick up enormously here in Colorado Springs after the Sarah Palin announcement. As I have mentioned previously here, this is a pretty strong Republican stronghold, but Romney and Huckabee seemed to get more enthusiasm than McCain in the primaries. That seems to have changed now.

Statistics for August Colorado Springs home sales are not official yet, but the preliminary figures are not as encouraging as last month. Sales were down 17.7%, and the average price was down a whopping 9.3%. It appears that distressed properties have cast a shadow once again over our market, with 23.3% of the sales being foreclosure and/or short sales.

This years Colorado Springs Balloon Classic was the best I've been to. My grandson Tyler and I headed to Memorial Park, arriving really too early, but getting good parking as a result. The lift off at 7am was really great, the air was still and cool, and it was just perfect! If you have never gone to one these events, it is a "must see". I've included a few more photos than normal, it was hard to pick my favorites with so many colorful images to shoot.

Colorado Springs was not the showcase of the Democratic National Convention, but our near neighbor to the north, Denver, got some nice coverage out of the deal. Mile High is about 1 hour from here, and it is nice knowing that the Denver Broncos NFL football, Avalanche NHL Hockey, Colorado Rockies MLB baseball, and Nuggets NBA teams are all so close, and play in some really world class venues. Whatever your politics, it is fun to have some sports teams to root for.

Speaking of sports, the quintessential Colorado sport, skiing / snowboarding, celebrates a major pre-season milestone this weekend, with the major equipment and pass sales beginning. Lift tickets at most resorts are in the $85 range for one off visits, and season passes or 4 packs are the best way for Colorado residents to beat the high cost of riding. We'll probably go with 4 packs to Copper Mountain this year ($119 for 4 visits), as gas prices and slow real estate sales will be putting a crimp on our families style. Normally a season pass for unlimited riding is $399.

We got a chance to check out the new emergency at Memorial Hospital North last night. My wife apparently hurt herself at the YMCA in a workout, and it flaired up badly on her late last night, so we drove the 1/2 mile to the ER (we could have walked, but she really was not feeling too good :-) It is a beautiful place, and before I even got the car parked in the nearby lot, she was already being treated. If you have to spend the night at the ER, this is the place to do it!

We finally got a foreclosure property under contract yesterday. It took a full week, 3 or 4 rounds of back and forth negotiating, but I think the house will be a good one for this client, and it is by the cleanest foreclosure I've ever shown, with very little that needs doing.

We also had a closing delayed for a day as a result of miscommunication between lender and buyer (not my buyer or a lender I would normally use :-) This could get interesting for the buyer, as he is scheduled to deploy to Iraq next week, and needs to be moving in this weekend. The processing department of your lender can make all the difference between a good purchase experience and a bad one, hopefully this will end up as just a minor inconvenience for the buyer and seller, but it is was another object lesson in using the best lender possible for your loan. I use Dana Hines at Adams Bank for this very reason, she never has these kinds of glitches.

Today's photo is from the top of Copper Mountain this spring, we really enjoy taking the lift up and hiking down, and was the view looking back toward Frisco from Copper.

Apparently the Colorado Springs real estate market is in a little better shape than the rest of the country right now. The housing reports are showing the rest of the country with considerably higher inventory and price cutting, whereas our most recent month indicates falling inventory and firming prices (see the link on the right for trend data). The most interesting figure to me is that Colorado Springs single family homes have just over a 7 month supply, while the rest of the country appears to be over 11.
Magpies are so common here that I sometimes chuckle when visitors ask what they are. These 2 were enjoying the sunrise at Garden of the Gods last week.

Saturday I showed around 20 homes in the Falcon Hills and Woodmen Hills subdivisions near Falcon. The 1/2 - 1 acre lots make this area east of Colorado Springs proper very popular for people have needs for more room, such as dogs, motor homes, or just like space, and are trying to keep the budget under control. In 300'ish range, we saw some very nice homes (and a couple not so nice!). This morning's Gazette had a pretty good article about the commercial growth plans for the Woodmen Road corridor all the way out to Falcon, here is the link: http://www.gazette.com/articles/woodmen_39658___article.html/colorado_property.html

Today's photo was from a couple of weeks back, Cheyenne Mountain at sunrise. Because of NORAD, Cheyenne Mountain has been almost as famous a symbol of Colorado Springs as Pikes Peak.

There really are signs that the Colorado Springs real estate market is on it's way back to normal. I've mentioned that I really am not fond of foreclosures, and today discovered we have fewer than 700 homes, or 10.9% of our active inventory, in the "distressed" category. This is down from closer to 13% at one point, and reflects both the lenders being a bit easier to work with when someone is in trouble, as well as fewer people getting into trouble.
The Danish company Vestas is in the news again, this time announcing they are building a production facility for the towers that go into wind power in Pueblo. They are rapidly becoming a player in the Colorado economy, and in the "new energy" economy as a whole, and I am excited to see our state involved in both the manufacture of these systems as well as the use of them. Many wind towers are expected to be installed in eastern Colorado to create electricity from wind energy (see the Pickens Plan for more details on this idea and what it might mean), where the wind blows pretty steady.
What a great thing to build them in Pueblo, once known as the Steel City, where unemployment has been somewhat high, and many workers who are skilled in working with metal still live. Pueblo is less than an hour south of the Springs, and is where the Colorado State Fair is held every year (it starts today!), also home to one of the largest lakes in the state, Pueblo Reservoir. Many of our TV and radio stations service both the Pueblo and Colorado Springs markets, as Cheyenne Mountain towers can reach both markets.
Today's photo is of the interior of the Garden of the Gods park, with a little foggy haze earlier in the week.

The "kissing camels" is one of the more recognized rock formations at Garden of the Gods. It is also the name of an exclusive gated golf course neighborhood on the top of the Mesa, one of the few you can spend a million dollars in. There are lots of rock formations that look like "something" in the park, and people have all kinds of names for them. I'll never pass the Rorschach tests these present, some named formations are literally color patterns in the rocks that from a certain perspective look like something to somebody.
We found out yesterday that we did NOT get the short sale / foreclosure home we had waited 45 days for. This is par for the course. When banks are involved they tend to make up their own rules, sense of right and wrong and fairness are not in their vocabulary, and heaven forbid they would ever tell you what is really going on. The normal offer protocol (when institutions are NOT involved) is that you submit a written offer with a reasonable deadline (usually 1-3 business days) for acceptance. Within that reasonable deadline, the seller either accepts, counters, or rejects your offer. Thankfully, foreclosures are becoming a smaller percentage of the business again, and while they will be with us for a while, I'm hoping they eventually fade as an old memory.
The Parade of Homes winds down this weekend, along with the Olympics. The most popular homes tend to be the most expensive ones, and I am often asked how many million dollar plus homes actually sell in Colorado Springs. The answer so far this year is 23. Over 1/3 of those were in the southwest area (Broadmoor), but almost an equal number were in the Trilakes / Black Forest areas (neighborhoods such as Cathedral Pines and High Forest Ranch), a change that has take place over the last several years as the northern areas of town have grown in popularity. In the middle of town, University Park has seen more of these, and on the west side, Cedar Heights and Kissing Camels. Afraid they all got away? Don't worry, we have 275 others in that price range :-)

Even at a place as beautiful as the Garden of the Gods, Pikes Peak dominates the scenery in Colorado Springs. We've had a big chunk of our cloudy day budget for the year in the last week, and this shot was one of those weird days when the south side of town was sunny, and the north was foggy / cloudy. I got this shot of the peak right at the break point. I don't remember snow showing up in August (and of course it is gone now), so this was also some evidence it really happened.
The news is talking about dates and schedules for our withdrawal from Iraq, but at Fort Carson, we still have more deployments happening, including the 2nd BCT of the 4th ID (approximately 3800 troops?) beginning to ship out as early as next week. I know it is selfish of me, but I'd really like to see this thing wind down. Yesterday I wrote an offer for a client whose son is being deployed. He is so close in age to that of my own kids, and I'm sure it will all be fine, but I know he'll be missed by his new wife and extended family while he is gone.

Garden of the Gods is probably the most popular tourist destination in Colorado Springs. For one, it is a free city park, which really helps. For another, it is amazingly beautiful, and while it can't be seen from 100 miles away like Pikes Peak, it is pretty spectacular. This morning after the 5:30 dialysis run with my mother-in-law, I went over and took some morning shots. The sunrise did not quite cooperate like I had hoped, but I got some nice shots I'll share over the next few weeks. The one above is from the Mesa overlook, not inside the park, but gives a nice teaser of what is inside.

I'm a little ashamed to admit I have not been there this early in the morning before. It was so peaceful, hardly any people, just the sounds of the birds (the pigeons cooing among the rocks is a little eerie), and lots of little rabbits running around. I saw some deer, a couple of nice bucks actually, but not from too close up. I guess we all forget to be tourists in our home towns sometimes.

I've been working on a pre-foreclosure / short sale purchase for a while now for some folks, and thought it would be worth sharing a couple of things.

#1, it is SUCH a slow process, no wonder there are still so many out there. We've been in "hurry up and wait" mode for almost 45 days, only to find out yesterday that another offer had just come in (and this only was discovered after more followup phone calls). #2 There is ZERO communication. The un-answered phone calls and un-replied to emails make you crazy. While some of this could be unique to the property itself (I have had some better luck with true bank owned property), all the fingers in the pot really make this an agonizing process. We'll see how we do, the clock has almost run out finally.

The rain has stopped here in Colorado Springs, but you still can't see the Peak, so I thought I'd throw in another sunrise shot from earlier this past week.
I watched the Olympics women's Marathon yesterday, and it reminded me that the Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon was supposed to be this weekend. I say supposed to be, because they had to call the Ascent off half way through it, after a combination of lightening and snow made it too unsafe. To run 26 miles on a pancake flat course is amazing. To run it up and down a 14,110 ft mountain is almost incomprehensible, especially in bad weather!

It has been a dry summer in Colorado, but that has all changed this week. I hope the August rain we are having extends the wildflower season a bit, and keeps us green longer into the fall. The Columbine (shown above) like it a bit wetter. It was downright gloomy out this yesterday and again this morning. It was raining nicely though, and that feels good after the dry we have had.
The new unemployment reports are out, and are showing the economy, while weak, is not completely tanked, with unemployment for the state of Colorado at 5.2%, but locally in Colorado Springs up to 6.1%. There have been a couple of bright spots, and ironically they center around energy. The western slope (Grand Junction being the landmark) is gearing up for more oil drilling and oil shale extraction. A Danish company (Vestas) has announced a new facility north of Denver to make wind generators, hopefully to be installed on the eastern plains. I'm sure at least some of the "Pickens Plan" gets done here, it makes a lot of sense, and doesn't really affect the wheat farmers on the eastern plains very much.
As the Iraq war winds down and housing picks back, I think we'll be fine here in the Springs. We have a lot of people still deployed from here, and Fort Carson and the City of Colorado Springs is ready for them to come home!
This will be an interesting next couple of weeks in the Denver area. The Democratic National Convention is a pretty big deal, and they've already decided to close I25 through downtown on the 28th of August, during Obama's acceptance speech. While logistically it makes some sense, that will be a frustrating experience for those who did not get the word. We use that road a lot getting to Ft Collins and back to see our daughter, and it is always pretty packed.

Tonight the snow level is supposed to drop to 10,000 feet, and the rain and clouds we have here today make me believe it. We were up in Summit County on Monday, and it turns out we also got a dusting in the high country last Sunday night. This shot is from the top of Mount Royal, above Frisco, and is of Grays and Torreys peaks, both 14ers on the Continental Divide.
We try and get away just before school starts every year for my wife's birthday, and it is usually Breckenridge, with activities spread around Summit County. We aren't "hard core" hikers, but thought we'd try the Mount Royal trail, which you can pick up in downtown Frisco. The views were well worth it, and I'll try and mix in a smattering of photos over the next week or so. More hardcore hikers consider this a tourist hike, at only 3 hours round trip, but it is quite steep, and different sources call this either 1350 or 1600 ft of vertical and frankly I can still feel it today, so maybe I'm really just a tourist anyway? We really enjoyed it, and after all, what is wrong with being a tourist, even in your own back yard? For me, this is part of why we live here.
One of my favorite sayings is this: When you buy a house in Colorado Springs, you get the rest of the state of Colorado as your back yard!

Not every day is gorgeous here in Colorado Springs, but almost every day is. Today's photo is of Pikes Peak, taken again from Palmer Park a couple of mornings ago. The forecast is for cooler, wet weather, and maybe even snow above 10,000 feet (Pikes Peak is 14,110). It will be nice to have that coat of white on the top again. Generally it is gone from June 1 to September 1, but it varies year by year, and some years we have had snow visible in July. With changing weather and lighting, it is easy to see why most of us like to soak in this view more than once a day, it is captivating!

Yesterday was primary election voting day. In Colorado Springs, that is usually most important for the Republican Party, but is very important for everyone, because in many cases, the Republican candidate runs unopposed in November. This year was no exception, with several key races being decided. I was particularly pleased to Douglas Bruce voted out. His "cut spending until you bleed" approach to public funding and his "in your face" style of politics is not conducive to keeping Colorado growing and a great place to live, and his replacement I think will do a much better job without being wasteful. It was also interesting to see a 3 way race for the congressional seat when the incumbent in running, but I was a little relieved to see Doug Lamborn re-elected, as it seemed like he had done a credible job in his first term, and was not quite deserving of being tossed out on his ear "just because". The DA race was also interesting, because the winner, Dan May, made his last minute decision to run based on an expose' piece on TV, that showed the incumbent drinking heavily at a local pub in the middle of the day, and then getting into a county vehicle and driving away. Not exactly what you expect from the guy who prosecutes drunk drivers.
Todays photo was taken yesterday from Palmer Park, and is a view of Garden of the Gods at sunrise. The red rocks pick up the sun nicely in the morning. It is getting cooler in the mornings (low 50's), the annual cool down toward fall is beginning. I can't believe they are already closing the city outdoor swimming pools, school hasn't even started yet! Whatever your politics, fall is a great time to enjoy Colorado. The cool air, warm sun and blue sky mornings are just glorious!

Downtown Colorado Springs is not huge, but I thought it was extra pretty this morning from the overlook at Palmer Park, so I thought I would share the experience. Now I am not a big "get up with the sunrise" kind of guy, but my mother-in-law needed a ride to dialysis this morning, so I thought I would make the most of it. I'll share more of these over the next couple of weeks. The air was cool (52!) and clear, so I got a bunch of shots.
Palmer Park is a very popular mountain biking, hiking and overall "enjoy the outdoors" kind of park, right in the middle of town. For dog lovers, there is an off leash area too, and there are several more traditional park "developed areas". It includes a large area of bluffs (known as "Austin's Bluffs" at one time, hence the name for one of our major streets), canyons, and great views. Because of the high ground and central location, it makes an ideal overlook to the whole region, and there are enough trails to wear you out. I stuck to taking pictures today!

Today is one of the 65 cloudy days a year we get in Colorado Springs, as opposed to the 300 days of sun. I think we only just broke 70 degrees for a few minutes before the cloud cover and some rain dropped us back into the 60's. After all the hot and dry weather this summer, it is a wonderful break, and we have had some really nice evening rain to boot.
In about a month, we'll start to see the leaves start turning in the high country. It is hard to accept that summer is almost over, but my wife the teacher will be back in her classroom in 1 week (who am I kidding, she is there right now, even though she doesn't have to be!). This is when we usually take a couple of days for our last summer getaway, and try to get one more group gathering on the back deck for a "farewell to summer" party, either here or at friends houses. This fall should be a little different, with Holly only teaching mornings, hopefully it will be busier business wise as well.
I thought I'd mention a little snooping I've done on the foreclosure front. This past month's new filings were substantially lower than last month (down 22.3%), and there are some questions in my mind as to what is happening. Our foreclosure laws changed at the first of the year, in that the owners "redemption period" was eliminated, and instead the time before sale was increased. In December, many foreclosures were filed, followed by a slower January. This months foreclosures was the lowest number we have seen since January, and leads me to believe we have bottomed out here. This follows the trend we've been observing of foreclosure and short sales as a percentage of our sales dropping from the mid 20's to under 20% for the last couple of months.

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!

It's been a long hot week here in Colorado Springs. For those of you who read this regularly, you've probably noticed I'm not a fan of hot weather, and I think we set some records, yesterday they were talking 96 or something. It actually was bearable if you weren't directly in the sun, and we had some breeze and clouds off and on to break it up a little. The break starts tomorrow, and we really should already be past the peak of the heat of summer now. We need some more rain!
The senior open winds up today. I don't how they are going to top having a black bear on the golf course on Friday. We (my wife and I) saw a bear on the course once at Patty Jewett, downtown. The Broadmoor is so up against the foothills, frankly it is less of a surprise, but with such large crowd, it made an impression. Bears are very common in the national forest, and they come down to vary their diets sometimes. With the hot dry weather, they are probably noticing the green grass on the course, and figure there must be some berries around!
Real estate sales statistics aren't out yet for July, but preliminary figures are encouraging, with prices up slightly, and unsold inventory down. Sales were also down, but the percentage difference from the prior year was less. I spent a lot of time in model homes this week, and the models seems pretty busy. It was a productive week, with a closing, another under contract yesterday, and maybe an offer coming in today on one of my listings?

Yesterday we had a good "frog choking rain" in the middle of town. It did not rain so hard up in Briargate, but it was running almost a foot deep and a car width wide in the gutters near Memorial Park, where I was showing property. The photo above was from my cell phone, and does not really tell the story, but I could not get out to my car for a bit because it was so deep. Some of the side streets were several inches deep, as wide as the road! It is easy to forget how fast the rain can fall sometimes, especially during a dry summer like this one.

We were looking mainly at foreclosures, and I was surprised at a couple of them. For $70,000 they weren't so bad. One we saw I think had been a meth lab house, it smelled SO awful, and there little kids playing in the yard in the house right next door. My sinuses burned for hours afterward. I have not showed in this category for a long time, it was kind of a special situation, we'll see what they decide to do.

Speaking of water, I had to replace our water heater this week. The last one only lasted 9 years, and the one before it only 6. I asked the plumbers about such things, and they seem to think it is the cheaper steel they are using. I noticed it was a lot more expensive this time around, and the new one does not appear to have any features the old one didn't have. I ended up buying the unit at Home Depot, and having a plumber install it, total package $840 (including the required permit from Regional Building), which was $100 - $150 less than the phone quotes I was getting. Maybe next time we go tankless? I still see water heaters from some older homes lasting 15- 20 years, some things they just don't make like they used to.

There is no official date that is considered mid-summer, but if there were, it would have to be about now. The hot and dry spell has continued, and Denver is about to have the most consecutive days above 90 in its history. Because of our elevation, we don't get as many, and even the hot days don't usually stay there as long as they have this week, it was still in the 70's at 10 last night.

Hot weather makes me think of mountains, and one popular mountain town near the Springs is Cripple Creek (shown above). Back we were new to the Springs in the early 90's, one of the big issues was how to save the old gold mining towns. They came up with a scheme to allow gambling in a few of them to see if it would work. Well, Cripple Creek, Central City and Black Hawk were the only 3 towns they chose, and it was to be limited stakes gambling. It worked, for the most part, and started a revival of sorts of these towns. Now the great issue is that they outlawed smoking in the casinos, and the casinos are unhappy because revenue is down. We aren't big gamblers, and if we spend $10 on nickel slot machines once every few years, it about does it. With the economy so poor, I almost laugh when they blame it on the non-smoking thing, I am surprised business is not down more, even tax revenues are down about as much. And then there is $4 gasoline. It is a little drive, and many people are being more careful about how much they are driving these days. Not to offend you smokers out there, but I like the new smoke free environment, and my guess is that when the economy picks up, so will their business. Ironically, the increase in the price of gold is also having an effect on these towns, spurring interest in expanding mining operations. The response? Not sure they want that, since the newer strip mining techniques might make the towns less attractive to gamblers. Go figure.

So how come gas prices haven't started dropping with crude oil prices? If gas prices dropped proportionally to the recent drop in crude, I think we'd be around $3.40 / gallon here, and while that is not exactly a bargain, it is better than the $3.90 or so we are at. I guess it is like interest rates, they go up easier than they go down, and there is not always a lot of rhyme or reason to them.

I thought I'd talk some about home inspections today, as I am in the middle of hashing out agreement on some inspection issues on a house I sold a week or 2 ago.
In Colorado, the contract is very specific about buyers rights when it comes to inspection. If the inspection(s) show anything the buyer does not like, they have 3 options. Either accept it anyway, ask the seller to fix it, or walk away from the deal. When the buyer asks for things to be fixed, the seller does not have to fix it, in which case the buyer either accepts the house as is, or walks away.
I for one do not like to see deals die over inspection issues. I've seen some silly stuff, where the seller feels they don't have to fix things because the buyers got "too good of a deal", or "the prior seller wouldn't fix it for us", or "we didn't care that it leaked, why should they", or "we never got cancer from radon", or "the seller of our house we are buying wouldn't do it" and on and on.
In Colorado Springs, we normally get an ASHI or NAHI certified (not licensed, there is no license for home inspectors here) inspector to do a general inspection. It typically costs between $250 - $300, and the good ones do a very thorough inspection of the mechanical aspects of the property, making sure everything works, that outlets are wired properly, roof, siding and window conditions, etc. Radon is an issue here, we generally recommend radon testing ($100) if there is a basement, if there is no basement it is not as common to test for it. Termite inspections are only done if there is some evidence of wood destroying insects. While they do exist here, termites are not very common. Occasionally a structural inspection is called for if there is evidence of problems found by the general inspection.
There are a couple of principles that I think should make this process more civil, and although not all buyers, sellers or other agents may agree, I wish more would consider it at least.
1. If you see inspection issues before you write the contract, include them in the contract, or at least alert the seller when writing the contract. It is risky to assume the seller will fix something that is obvious and unsatisfactory after the contract is accepted, since they are assuming you are ok with those items that are obvious.
2. The 3 S's, Safe, Sound and Sanitary. If an item falls into one of these categories, it is generally a reasonable inspection item to ask for. Buyers, inspection is not Christmas shopping, you are not looking for ways to improve the property over what it is, or otherwise figure out how to enrich yourself at the sellers expense. Strictly cosmetic items should be off limits, unless they are damage that occurs after contract. I like to think of most of the inspection report as a "honey do list" for the buyer after they close, since all homes have normal maintenance items that are somewhere in the middle of their cycle.
3. The Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would have done unto you. If you would not want to buy a house with a leaky water heater, don't ask your buyers to. But vise versa, as a buyer, if you know you can take care of some of the issues easily yourself, you might not want to trouble the seller, who may be stressed out of their minds with other issues.
4. Materiality. Some requests are maybe in a grey area, but if they aren't expensive, and they make the buyer feel more comfortable with the process, in a buyers market like today, the seller should be considering doing the request anyway. It works the other way in a sellers market, the buyer should consider carefully any requests they make that send the seller looking for another buyer.

It has been hot and dry, so I got started in sanding and staining my deck this weekend. I finally broke down and installed the window AC unit in the master yesterday, I have to say that it was nice, given it was still 75 degrees or so at 10 pm last night (that is unusually warm here). It is beautiful, clear and cool (60's) this morning, like it is most mornings in Colorado Springs in the summer.

Finally some real rain! We had a very nice thunderstorm this afternoon, and it feels like more to come this evening, so maybe we'll get back on track for the summer monsoon pattern that most of us love. In addition to the welcome cool off at the end of the day, the rain really greens things back up, and it has been too much of a brown summer so far.

I love mid month closings (actually, in this market, I'll take closings any time of day, any day of the week, any week of the month!). Our closing this morning was only 25 minutes, and on a VA loan no less. I know part of the reason was that the seller had previously signed off, so it was a "buyer only" closing. It was also quick because Sally Shelton, my closer at Peoples Title, is the fastest and best closer in the business. But mid month closings are usually quicker and smoother , because things aren't as hectic, the lenders tend to do a better job getting figures done, everyone is a little more relaxed, everything just seems to go smoother. I was representing the seller, and was a bit sad to see her go, as she and her former room mate had been clients for close to 10 years. The buyer got a great house for the money.

Today's photo is from a thunderstorm last summer, taken in our neighborhood. I love what the clouds do when the storms roll through.

Mortgages are still pretty available, despite all the commotion in the financial markets. Ironically, it might actually bring rates back down if this keeps up (although we are in the low 6's now, which is pretty good). With the stock market at such low numbers, it usually brings money into the bond market, helping rates.
We still have some pretty good programs too. I talk a lot about FHA, because with only 3% down, it goes all the way to $325,000, which buys a pretty decent home here. With 5% down, conventional loans go all the way to $417,000, which even includes some of our nicer new construction areas. And for jumbo loans (over $417,000), Wells Fargo has a program that allows you to combine a smaller 1st mortgage with a purchase money 2nd HELOC that avoids the stiff penalties of going to a true jumbo mortgage (although this is a 20% down program).
Last week we got a briefing on the new Sanctuary in the Pines development in D20 Black Forest. One of the signs that our market may be getting closer to a turnaround is new developments like this. Although prices will be starting in the $600's pretty much for completed homes, these are 2.5 acre wooded lots in D2o, on a community water system, which is a first. I think this one will be a winner.
Another sign that things may be turning around is the supply of "spec" homes keeps shrinking. Last weekend I noticed the list of specs in Cordera in particular was very short. While the overall supply of homes is quite ample, there are definitely pockets where the only choice is start one from scratch. There sure are some great deals out there in resale homes!

This weekend was a great family weekend for us. We celebrated my son's new job, and our other son and his wife came home from the Aspen area to join us, although just for a quick visit. We caught a movie (Hancock, way better than we expected), and even took a drive up to the mountains for a few hours. Movie theater choices are expanding rapidly here, with a new Hollywood Theater already open at Interquest (Northgate area), and another Cinemark (the 3rd) opening this fall, almost across the street. We still go to the Cinemark on Powers or the Chapel Hills Mall theaters, maybe out of habit, maybe because of convenience.

The weather has been really great, but too dry. We really need some rain, but the temps all weekend barely made it to 80, so it was very comfortable, blue sky weather.

Today's photo is of the buffalo grazing in the distance along Highway 9 on the way back from Breck a few weeks ago.

The constant thrashing in the worlds money markets is not helping real estate sales. At least not here in Colorado Springs. Our market is very "housing cost driven", which means that people are sensitive to the monthly payments required to buy a house. When interest rates jump, it has a dampening effect on peoples appetites to buy, because for the same payment, they can afford less. With the stock market already low, and now Fannie Mae (FNMA, Federal National Mortgage Association) and Freddie Mac (Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation) both having liquidity problems, it is going to be interesting how liquidity is going to flow into the real estate market so that buyers can still borrow the money to buy homes. We solve that, and the oil crisis, and "then there will be world peace" :-) Currently rates are still in the mid 6's, which we can probably live with, but it was only last month we were still in the 5's, and I miss that already.
It is hot for the next couple of days here. It started pretty nice (ok, gorgeous) this morning, but 90 today and higher tomorrow is what they say. I don't think we hit 80 before noon, but it seemed to be warming up kind of quick over lunch time. Our overnight temps tend to drop 30 or more degrees from the daytime high, so even hot weather like this is pretty bearable, although I am personally more of a cool weather fan.

Short sales and foreclosures were a major topic at this morning's sales meeting. The context? Discourage your sellers from pursuing these routes. The long and "short" (pun intended) of it, is that there are longer term repercussions in terms of damaged credit, inability to own again for a long time, tax liabilities, deficiency judgments, insurance rates, and even job possibilities being affected by these things. If at all possible, don't do it was the message we heard.

What is the best solution when you owe more than your home is worth, and you HAVE to sell? Find a source of credit to fund the shortage that can be paid off over time after the closing. Especially if the shortage is not huge, usually the result will be a happier future.

The weather has been pleasantly cool and even wet the last few days, with the highs around 80. A big warm up is on the way though (94 on Saturday!), I may have to look for another opportunity to go up to Breckenridge, or somewhere else where it will be cooler! Today's photo is from 2 weeks ago, downtown Breckenridge

Colorado Springs has warmed up a bit in the last several days. We may see 90 again today, although yesterday we went hiking between Divide and Cripple Creek, where it was a nice 74 or so. We took the hike to up to Horsethief Falls. It was not much of a water fall anymore (earlier in the Spring it flows much harder), but a very pleasant, shady hike. We tend to take these kinds of hikes on holidays, because it seems so hard to break loose the time otherwise. It was not super crowded, although in the 3 miles up and back we probably saw 20 groups of hikers.

Barack Obama came to town yesterday, and spoke to a select audience at UCCS, aka University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, or CU Springs. Colorado Springs is not normally a big stop on the democratic presidential "train", and it was interesting that he chose to make this stop at this time, since everyone will be in Denver in August for the Democratic National Convention. This is normally viewed as a Republican stronghold, but who knows how this next election will go? He sure picked the right place to talk about increasing the size of the Army and Marines, although he did not mention the Air Force.

It was great to get some rain yesterday. It never really got very hot, and the rain was very refreshing and much needed. Maybe the wildflowers will finally come out. Today is supposed to be pretty nice, and maybe even some more rain before a scorching hot weekend. I don't think we have actually really gotten to 90 degrees yet, but Sunday is supposed to get to 94!

Today's photo is from Snowmass, taken last June.

Independence Day, 4th of July, whichever you want to call it, it is a great holiday in Colorado Springs. Some of the surrounding small communities still have little parades with kids on bikes and toddlers in wagons. The "big show" in Colorado Springs proper is the Memorial Park celebration, complete with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic Orchestra free concert, and a fireworks display that opens with a battery of howitzers from Fort Carson, as part of the 1812 Overture. Other area fireworks displays are at the Air Force Academy, Fort Carson, Palmer Lake, and Manitou Springs (though I heard they were cutting our fireworks for fire danger reasons this year). We will be spending the 4th with a large group of old friends.
Part of the reason this is such a big holiday here, is the number of active duty and former military personnel. One study puts that number at close to 21% of the adult population. Certainly with 5 military bases (Air Force Academy, Peterson Air Force Base, Shriever Air Force Base, Fort Carson, and NORAD), Colorado Springs has a strong patriotic feel to it.
With the oil crisis, continued problems in Iraq, a housing and automotive recession, rising unemployment, the stock market tanking, fires burning all over the West (especially California), floods in the Midwest, and on and on, it is easy to forget how great life really is, especially for us in the United States, and even more especially for us in Colorado Springs. I'm hoping to make this 4th of July Thanksgiving Day, in addition to Independence Day.
Today's photo is from late last June at Independence Pass, just east of Aspen. I tend to associate it with the 4th of July weekend, because we spent the 4th up in Snowmass with our son a few years ago, and really enjoyed the scenic beauty of this magnificent pass over Highway 82. It is closed for 1/2 the year because of snow, and when it opens, takes an hour off the drive from the Springs to Aspen / Snowmass.

Official July statistics for Colorado Springs real estate sales won't be out until after the 4th of July holiday, but preliminary figures show that while our sales continue to be anemic, some good news has started with prices and supply. Prices have been rebounding since December, and both the average and the mean price have increased to $256,824 and $222,000 respectively. The percentage of distressed units has dropped sharply, to 17.65%, from a high of 26% in February. It remains to be seen whether this is a trend or a blip, but I have felt for a while now that the percentage of distressed units has been drag on prices. The inventory of unsold homes has dropped almost 4% since last June.

We have some new clouds on the economic horizon, with Hewlett Packard announcing they will be shifting employees from some Colorado Springs operations to New Mexico starting next year, and to Ft Collins. The Fort Collins folks may take the transfers, as there are some great lifestyle issues to be had in Ft Collins, but the New Mexico transfers will not be as popular. We'll see how it shakes out. By then we should be seeing more returning troops to Ft Carson from Iraq.

Today's photo is the Blue River from downtown Breckenridge along the river walk. Today will be the hottest day of the year so far, around 90, and the I always think of the cool mountain air and ice cold waters of the mountains on days like this.

We went up to Fort Collins yesterday to celebrate the birthday of our twins. Our daughter, who attends Colorado State University (CSU) came up with the idea of having the celebrations up there this year, and it was really fun. We always enjoy visiting Ft Collins, as the tree lined streets and walking paths are a pleasant reminder of our own college days. The weather tends to be a bit warmer and more humid, but this summer that means greener than home, not all bad. It is a 2 hour drive, which is generally pleasant as long as traffic isn't bad in Denver (which it was not). There are lots of great places to eat, and each of them picked a different place for meals. Several of their friends from high school also go to CSU and are living in Ft Collins for the summer, so it was a reunion of sorts. Today's photo is on the Spring Creek Trail in Fort Collins.

Coming back to Colorado Springs from several days in Breckenridge is probably one of the only times I get mixed feelings about coming home. While it has been in the mid 80's in the Springs all week, it was just around 70 every day up in the mountains. There is still snow on the peaks. The place we stayed, Tannenbaum, is right on the Blue River, just on the south side of town, so the rushing river and its special sound were our constant companions. It was nice, especially for being only 2 hours from home. We really enjoyed the family reunion we had up there.

We usually book our lodging with Ski Country Resorts. They represent lots of different properties, and also rent bikes. Some of our favorite activities include hiking, shopping on Main Street in Breck, taking the chair lift at Copper Mountain and hiking down the mountain, walking along the Blue River, horseback riding, biking, and of course, eating! At night we usually do puzzles, play games, or watch a movie.

The top photo is the Blue River just as it enters the town, and the bottom one are the mountains on the south side of Hoosier Pass.

We are getting ready to have a family reunion of sorts up in Breckenridge this week. Our California relatives that are coming out are suffering some amazingly hot weather, in the hundreds, and are looking forward to some days where it might not even hit 70, although it will be sunny. The temperatures are so much cooler at 10,000 feet than they are even at 7,000, it is really a nice summer break when hot weather hits. We plan to take full advantage of the hiking and biking trails in particular, plus some general R&R.

Today's photo is from a few years back, taken at Crater Lake in the Maroon Bells, near Aspen.

It is nice to see the Colorado Rockies get out of the cellar of the NL West. 8 games out of first is not great, but being 3rd is better than last. Who knows, maybe they make another late season run again?

The thunder storms and rain last night was so nice, and the cool morning air felt very good. There is almost always at least a 30 degree temperature drop overnight from the daytime highs, and that makes our summers very pleasant in Colorado Springs. A little rain should encourage the wildflowers again, which make our meadows very colorful. The old ski town saying, "people come for the winters, but stay for the summers" is really true. I have yet to find anyone who leaves here because they did not enjoy our summers. Today's photo was taken last summer in Snowmass, I believe this is Capitol Peak? My son who lives there is the expert on the peak names, I just thought it was gorgeous!

It was warm in Colorado Springs yesterday, in the upper 80's, but today is much cooler, and not expected to top 80 degrees, so not bad at all. I was surprised it did not rain, it sure acted like it would for a while.

I listed a house yesterday that I thought would be worth talking about. It is in "like new" condition, and for $300,000, is really big at almost 3900 sq ft, with 4 bedrooms plus a study, 4 baths, and a 2 car garage. It has central air, and a decent Peak view from the back deck. Located in Stetson Hills (Falcon school district 49) at 6753 Stockwell Dr, it also has great access to the Powers Shopping corridor and Peterson AFB. It is a large 4 level, and has lots of high ceilings, and actually has 3 separate living areas! The virtual tour and other information should be up soon at our other site, http://www.vwteamhomes.com/.

I am not the only one who listed property lately. Our inventory of available homes has grown already to 6,600 homes, and at this rate, will likely be on par with last years levels. This is sure a great time to buy!

As Colorado Springs largest real estate office, our monthly sales meetings and marketing forums really are good, even though I usually am not a fan of meetings. The RE/MAX Properties Chapel Hills office marketing forum was this morning, and I thought I'd share a few things that were of interest.
We actually had the meeting at the Cordera community center, and had a little briefing about Cordera as a community. In addition, Campbell Homes, one of their featured builders gave a short presentation as well. Cordera is going to be where 1400 homes eventually go, at the moment there are around 200. Cordera is a community oriented neighborhood, meaning that the dues are a little higher ($100 month currently), but they include more, and have lots of community activities. The D20 elementary school, Chinook Trail, is the only one in the region to my knowledge, teaching Mandarin Chinese to the students, and will eventually be joined by a middle school. Their overall emphasis is on world language and culture.
Campbell spoke briefly about their guaranteed delivery date program, which is unique among local builders. They have a 5 1/2 month build schedule, and will actually pay the buyer $100 per day if they miss it. In 10 years, they have not had to write a check, which is really remarkable when you consider how many things can go wrong when a house is being built.
Wells Fargo bank attended the meeting, and gave us the unhappy news that El Paso County conventional loans now all require 10% down minimum, and rates are definitely up sharply this week. My regular lender's quote was 6.5% today. They strongly recommended exploring FHA and VA eligibility for anyone needing a less than 10% down payment program.

Yesterday was a very pleasant day here in the Springs, and I hope the other dads out there had as good a Fathers Day as I did. It was great to be surrounded by my grandkids and kids, grilling steaks on the back deck. Today we woke up to a cool drizzly day, and interest rates took a big jump to 6.75% :-(, so it wasn't as nice (although rain is very welcome right now). Tiger Woods winning the US Open in a sudden death playoff was a consolation at least!
I showed property over the weekend, primarily in Cordera. I really like the community center and pool, and the views are very nice. The location is also extremely convenient for Powers access, great D20 school situation, and you can still build a pretty nice house for under $400k, although I think most are coming in for much more than that. It has the advantage of being a little upscale from Wolf Ranch, or Cumbre Vista, without the higher prices of Flying Horse Ranch.

Fire season is off and running here and across the west already. The 2nd big fire of the year near Ft Carson is still going (although Pinon Canyon is really not super near the post proper, and not visible from here). It was a dry spring, and windier than usual, a bad combination for fires.
Fathers Day is this weekend, and it brings a little pain to realize this is the first Fathers Day since my own dad passed. Although we weren't together for these very often, especially as everyone grew up, I always tried to call him. Call your Dad this weekend if he is still around!