The Streets of Colorado Springs are paved with GOLD! (Pueblo: car rental, real estate)

[Colorado Rambler]

(Note to any newbies who might come across this post - I'm being humorous. Actual Real Estate prices in the Springs average double what I've mentioned.)

I come to this conclusion because that's the way many Springs residents and City Fathers/Mothers act when it comes to allocating $$$ for infrastructure improvements and repairs for streets with potholes.

And especially because of the amazing prices for housing - from real estate to rentals to places to stay using AirBnB.

I now consider browsing padmapper an activity that is best done with a fifth of the best Kentucky Bourbon close to hand. Those who think green should overcome the sticker shock induced by studio apartments on East Brookside going for $3,489.00/mo (plus first, last, and damage deposit) by smoking an ounce of Sour Diesel before they even consider sitting down with their laptops.

Those seeking to buy their very own home should at minimum have 3 fat bank accounts - one in Switzerland and two in the Cayman Islands. You've spent weeks doing nothing but wander around crumbling older homes in and around the Knob Hill neighborhood (Typical Zillow Listing: Garage NEEDS WORK. Has roof issues. Main House appears Structurally Sound, but Is dated). What's this APPEARS sound? Still, at $539,000 it's a STEAL! Plus, it's already been listed on Zillow for 37.2 seconds and only has 13 offers. Maybe you should just suck it in and make a 14th offer (now listed for 42.9 seconds and going fast). Didn't 90909 used to be a less desirable neighborhood? Oh, well.

But seriously... IRL the thing that both frustrates and amazes me is AirBnB. The little cottage that I rented in Manitou for a mere $500/month back in 2009 is now an AirBnB rental for $200/night! From the pix, it doesn't look like they did much with it to renovate, but if they rent the place every night which I bet they do in the summer, that's $6,000/month! Dang! I know Manitou is desirable, especially because you can buy your Sour Diesel there (I couldn't care less), but still...

I actually got tears in my eyes looking at all those AirBnB's in various of my old stomping grounds - mainly 80906 and 80904 besides Manitou. It was part nostalgia and part sticker shock. I recognized a number of houses besides my old Manitou one, and I could see that some had been beautifully renovated and were probably worth that $200 - $600/night for those who have money to burn. That would NOT be me!

I found some places that appeared to be decent in the NW part of town, west of I-25 and north of Woodmen. It appears that there are some affordable, fairly decent looking AirBnB's in the 80919 area which I always had considered fairly upscale. And is RockRimmon still a nice neighborhood?

I wanted to go back to check out the Springs back in May and here it is already October! I can't even afford to visit the Springs now-a-days! I get really homesick looking at all those houses and neighborhoods, yet I bet the city has changed so much that I'd be lost the second I got off the plane or bus. And then there's the man from my past who still lives in the Springs and has been calling me for TWO YEARS now wanting me to come visit him or invite him to come visit me. I've been extremely hesitant about THAT one, but I must admit that I admire his persistence. Guess I should go see him? Except that I don't have the cash to bribe some gatekeeper to let me into the golden city for a few days.

Oh, grrr! I just need to vent I suppose. I'm going to sleep now and dream about robbing Ft. Knox, so I can afford to go home.

[Miss Hepburn]

I know right? (Pray for the poor renters! I used to be one!)
My loan officer and wife pay $1200 for a one bedroom! Poor kids, my house is paid off.

I went to ENT, local Credit Union for newbies, to get info on many things...they had already pulled up my address...
My house according to THEIR source that they rely on...went up $25,000 since I looked on diff sources 2 months ago...what?

So it has gone up $90,000 since, I dunno, ever....like 15 years. Crazy.
I thought why not open up a line of credit for $50-75K locked in at 5.? %....costs
nothing to have it sit there available.

Ya know if your car gets totaled cuz of a small crash...ya get $5000 maybe for it...
I thought it would be nice to just have that line of credit sitting.
Called something like HELOC ? Home equity loan on credit?


Manitou, imo ...easy buying some Kush?
Yeah, well so can every derelict that comes into town to stay.

[BornintheSprings]

Very humorous post Colorado Rambler as well as eye opening. The springs is rapidly becoming unaffordable for working people and this is unacceptable in my view. I think rent control is sorely needed or at least more housing options for those who don't roll around in a Bentley.

https://www.kktv.com/content/news/Af...494921931.html

[mtngigi]

According to another thread a few lines down from this one, there are some who think everyone should be able to live and work quite easily, if only they would try a little harder. Maybe, but then who would take your burger order at the fast food places? Or clean those office buildings after everyone leaves? Minimum wage workers need options other than dumps charging ridiculous sums of money just for a roof over their head.

OP - did you see this thread concerning airbnbs: Airbnb rentals in Colorado Springs: Regulations coming?

Changes are coming.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by mtngigi

...Changes are coming.

Yes. The other day Amazon raised its minimum wage to $15/hour for all employees, and Bezos challenged the rest of America to match it. Amazon's pay raise is good step in the right direction and should be adopted as a nationwide minimum wage to level the playing field across all firms and to help the working class a bit.

With streets paved with gold it's only a matter of time before the porcelain toilets in the Acacia Park restrooms are replaced with gold ones, (for our blessed visitors) like our dear leader has in his NYC penthouse. Goodbye cow town image..... no more of this mediocre "Front Range" crap status, the I-25 corridor is now the Gold Coast!

[mtngigi]

Ha! I'm never allowed to "rate your post positively" Mike ... but I always want to.

That's great what Amazon is doing, and will go a long way towards helping a lot of people out. It brings things a bit closer to a "living wage" ... but not by much if people, especially families, are not given reasonable options for housing.

[BornintheSprings]

Originally Posted by mtngigi

Ha! I'm never allowed to "rate your post positively" Mike ... but I always want to.

Seriously I have the same problem!

[Brill]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

the I-25 corridor is now the Gold Coast!

Would that make it the billion dollar highway?

[Colorado Rambler]

Originally Posted by mtngigi

According to another thread a few lines down from this one, there are some who think everyone should be able to live and work quite easily, if only they would try a little harder. Maybe, but then who would take your burger order at the fast food places? Or clean those office buildings after everyone leaves? Minimum wage workers need options other than dumps charging ridiculous sums of money just for a roof over their head.

OP - did you see this thread concerning airbnbs: Airbnb rentals in Colorado Springs: Regulations coming?

Changes are coming.

That's the other thing that has me amazed. Since the economy is currently booming, unemployment is down and wages should be going up. That's SHOULD. The reality is that the Springs is still notorious for the low wages that employers there get away with paying their workers. It was bad enough before the current housing boom and now?

I did read the thread on AirBnB and must admit that if one were to suddenly go in next door to me anywhere, I doubt that I'd be very happy about it. But then again, I've become the Colorado Forum hardened curmudgeon since jazzlover took off - for those who have been around long enough to remember him.

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

Yes. The other day Amazon raised its minimum wage to $15/hour for all employees, and Bezos challenged the rest of America to match it. Amazon's pay raise is good step in the right direction and should be adopted as a nationwide minimum wage to level the playing field across all firms and to help the working class a bit.

With streets paved with gold it's only a matter of time before the porcelain toilets in the Acacia Park restrooms are replaced with gold ones, (for our blessed visitors) like our dear leader has in his NYC penthouse. Goodbye cow town image..... no more of this mediocre "Front Range" crap status, the I-25 corridor is now the Gold Coast!

Bully for Amazon. Someone please correct me if stress has robbed me of my ability to do simple arithmetic, but $15.00/hr x 160 hours (the number of hours a full time employee works per month) = $2,400.00/month. Back in the day, I always figured that uncle Sam would take roughly 1/3 of that in state and federal taxes, plus fines, fees, and penalties and anything else the gubbermint can think up. This leaves our happy Amazon worker with only 2/3 of their pay in their monthly take home check or $1,584.00/month.

According to padmapper,. the median rate for a 1 bdrm apartment in our fair city is $938.00/month. A 2 bdrm goes for $1,112/month. A family of 3 crammed into the smaller apartment is left with only $472.00/month to cover frills like food, transportation, heat and electricity.

Of course, probably both Mom and Dad hold down full time jobs with Amazon in order to jointly bring home $3,168.00. Subtract the rent for a 1 bdrm and they have $2,230.00/month to cover all the living expenses for two adults and one child. That's pretty harsh. Yet old Jeff probably thinks he's Santa Claus and the good citizens of conservative Colorado Springs feel that the minimum wage should be kept at $7 or $8/hour. Otherwise the death of capitalism will occur in under 5 years - probably more like 1 year.

As for golden toilets in Acacia Park, I think the city and its visitors would be better served by making the statue of General Palmer and his horse out of gold first (are those two still there, blocking traffic?) As an alum of Palmer High, I predict that this would do wonders for the school spirit of the kids who spend their days there. I STILL remember how bored I was in my sophomore English class, gazing out the window at the General and praying for the session on how to diagram a sentence to end.

Anyhow, I have decided that the cheapest rental of any sort (AirBnB included) in the Springs today is to be found in the vastly expanded Motor City neighborhood off I 25 at the edge of Ivywild. Enterprise offers car rentals for as low as $12.99/day, and I wasn't a wild child all those years ago in High School for nothing. Some of my "secret hideaways" where my friends and I would go to do things our parents generally frowned upon are sure to still exist, and even the crummiest AirBnB unit can't beat 12 bucks per night. I'll just have to rent nondescript vehicle with a comfy back seat, and I'll be set.

[otowi]

Just saw something on KRDO about an Amazon Warehouse going in by the airport and jobs being posted by Amazon in the Colorado Springs area right now.

You're right that $15/hr isn't a huge amount but consider that it is better pay than a huge percentage of the jobs available in Colorado Springs.

I don't know if folks realize, but somewhere around half of this city has its kids on free/reduced lunch at school - look up the income rates for that.

This past May, my niece rented an Airbnb for her graduation party from CSU Pueblo - it was a house down near Lake Pueblo. It was just a gathering place for people coming in from out of town, a few of them could stay the night, etc. The people lived upstairs and the rental was downstairs. It was in nowhere Pueblo West and I do think the neighbors didn't like it too much - no one would be in that area that didn't live there normally - it isn't on the way to anywhere - and now they have regular traffic from strangers who feel no sense of ownership for the area. On the other hand, I had a friend who let out her basement here in town and it was a great source of retirement income for her. I can see both sides.

About the wages not rising - this has become a huge problem all over the country - the big wigs have figured out they can take those corporate tax cuts and booming economy profits and put it right into their pockets instead of passing it on. Hence the huge income inequality problem that is only growing.