Real Estate Market / Inflation / Recession / Depression (Colorado Springs, Fort Carson: mortgage, credit, equity)

[hello-world]

Originally Posted by Jubi_Ash

thanks for the replies. Here is an article I found that says risk of prices falling there are slim. I'm surprised to hear that houses aren't selling.

http://www.multifamilyinvestment.com/apt2.htm

under
Recent Articles on the Colorado Springs Economy:
"Jan18,06 - Study; House Buying in City is Low Risk"

-Emily

according to a couple sources online, prices ARE falling in denver. -5% overall (residential), -15% condos (year over year, as of last month) according to one source. condos might be bringing the "overall" into the red. i don't know. if i remember correctly, that was from metrolistings or the multiple listings, posted by a realtor. you can get a somewhat reasonable feel for it (i'd think) from trulia.com or zillow.com. they pretty much comp things for cities, neighborhoods, and for particular addresses. they both indicate falling trends for much of denver metro that i've looked at lately. but, I DON'T KNOW WHAT DATA TRULIA USES (zillow tells you outright - i've never found it on trulia). <<-caveat

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by WagneriTeam

Great News! Colorado Springs homeowners saw a healthy appreciation in 2007! The Colorado Springs real estate market saw an average sales price of $269,075. This is UP from the 2006 average sales price of $264,755. In fact, Colorado Springs has seen great appreciation since the MLS started recording data in 1994. The average sales price in Colorado Springs has jumped $100,000 since 1999!
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If you own a home that you bought years back, I guess you could call it great news. For younger people, who are struggling to be able to buy a home these days and struglling to be able to afford it on their income, it's hardly good news at all. When we Baby Boomers get old and have lived up all of our savings and equity, somehow I don't think we may get a lot of sympathy from the generations who followed us who aren't going to enjoy our "good fortune." They may just remember how we gloated over the real estate boom, and left them out of the American Dream of home ownership.

[hello-world]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

If you own a home that you bought years back, I guess you could call it great news. For younger people, who are struggling to be able to buy a home these days and struglling to be able to afford it on their income, it's hardly good news at all. When we Baby Boomers get old and have lived up all of our savings and equity, somehow I don't think we may get a lot of sympathy from the generations who followed us who aren't going to enjoy our "good fortune." They may just remember how we gloated over the real estate boom, and left them out of the American Dream of home ownership.

excellent point.

[hello-world]

Originally Posted by WagneriTeam

Great News! Colorado Springs homeowners saw a healthy appreciation in 2007! The Colorado Springs real estate market saw an average sales price of $269,075. This is UP from the 2006 average sales price of $264,755. In fact, Colorado Springs has seen great appreciation since the MLS started recording data in 1994. The average sales price in Colorado Springs has jumped $100,000 since 1999!
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by the way, this is only about a 1.6% appreciation rate, below inflation. better than a DEpreciation rate, though, i'd guess.

what is breakdown for property type? condo? single family? 1 br? 4 br?

how does the CO springs market trend with the denver market? it seems to me that if one deflates, the other might deflate after a while...OR, if one begins picking back up, the other might, too? (people deciding to move to one versus the other based in part on housing costs, e.g.).

oh. never mind on some of this...i see someone posted some stuff that answers some of it. and, yeah, it DOES look quite a bit worse on coloradoan's link. what IS up with that? is wagneriteam's the total MLS for the springs, and coloradoan's the MLS for just pike's peak?

[suzco]

Originally Posted by WagneriTeam

Great News! Colorado Springs homeowners saw a healthy appreciation in 2007! The Colorado Springs real estate market saw an average sales price of $269,075. This is UP from the 2006 average sales price of $264,755. In fact, Colorado Springs has seen great appreciation since the MLS started recording data in 1994. The average sales price in Colorado Springs has jumped $100,000 since 1999!
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The Colorado Springs Gazette is decidedly less optimistic about the market in the Springs.

Colorado Springs’ housing market suffered through one of its worst downturns in recent memory during 2007. Foreclosures broke a 19-year-old record, home construction slowed to a pace not seen since the early 1990s and home sales fell.

Don’t expect much of a turnaround in 2008, some economists and real estate experts said Wednesday.

The Gazette Article

[hello-world]

Originally Posted by bashep

Coloradoan's stats do cover all of Colorado Springs. Stats from Wagneriteam came from their company website. I tried to go on their site and see where they get their stats from and couldn't find it. Hopefully they will come back on here and tell us where their stats are from. Most realtors use the PPMLS (Coloradoan's Stats) for all their numbers, they are usually the most accurate.

i saw that the stats from the pikespeak (that's a company, right?) site were from the PPMLS (pikes peak multiple listing service, i'm guessing, and so i can only imagine that's for whatever business PP has done with the listings). so, maybe they're both from company numbers? what is "pikes peak" in the context of this? i know pikes peak is a summit near the springs, but, is this a company, too?

[Mike from back east]

Very smart economists do not expect the national housing market to rebound until 2009, after national elections and credit crunch run their course. Until then the market will go sideways or fluctuate a bit month to month. Only notable upside in COL SPGS is the steady pace of growth at Fort Carson, begun 1-2 years ago and continues through 2013, adding 1-2 thousand troops per year, plus an average of 2 family members per soldier. That may take up some slack in the housing market, especially on the south side of town and possibly out in the Banning-Lewis Ranch project on the east side.

[Bob from down south]

The COS real estate market is in a real state of decline (both prices and volume) like most others in the nation. I don't care what Marianne Wagner's Everlasting Gobstopper Sunshine Machine is pumping out. The homes I've been watching (in the $400K range) have nearly all dropped around 10% since September 07. Prices may be have been up $100K since 1999, but those bubblicious overvaluations are being systematically cut down to size every month now.

Your biggest worry is that DoD will figure that out and start dropping the BAH at a commensurate rate.

As to the the generations behind the boomers being left out, well, Poppycock! I think an alternate reality to Jazzlover's view is opening up. The one where the boomers look around and wonder why the house they paid $500K for is only worth $300K, and that only to a handful of people that can qualify for a $300K mortgage with a (gasp) 20% down payment and actual proof of a six-figure income... The only Gen-X and Gen-Y types left out are the ones that can't stay out of debt and/or cobble together a meaningful down payment.

Cheers

[hello-world]

Originally Posted by Bob from down south

The only Gen-X and Gen-Y types left out are the ones that can't stay out of debt and/or cobble together a meaningful down payment.

such as those that cannot or will not work towards nearly 6 figure household incomes, but still want to live in a safe and attractive place, for example?

[Bob from down south]

Originally Posted by hello-world

such as those that cannot or will not work towards nearly 6 figure household incomes, but still want to live in a safe and attractive place, for example?

Look, I lived in my share of dumpy apartments and trailers as a college student and as a twenty-something working my way up. Today, too many people expect to buy a nice house while they're just starting out...without those scrappin' years building up the means to do it--that means saving for years like Scrooge incarnate for a down payment, avoiding "stupid-tax" payments for things like new cars, credit card debt etc. The "American Dream" is not to be construed as an automatic birthright, payable on demand upon reaching adulthood.

"Safe and attractive?" A six-figure income is not needed in Colorado Springs for "safe and attractive," unless your expectation meter is laser-locked on the Joneses next door in their overleveraged McMansion, and more than likely they don't own a bit of it anyway.

Bob