Manitou Or Pagosa (Colorado Springs, Durango, Alamosa: for sale, real estate, rental)

[CO ON MY MIND]

We live in Albuquerque and recently visited Colorado Springs. We spent one day in Manitou Springs and fell in love with it! We're thinking of buying a 2nd home/vacation home there, but a friend of mine who owns a vacation home in Pagosa Springs raves about life there. In either location, the only way we can afford to do this is to purchase a 2-4 unit place to get rental income from a portion of the property and keep 1 unit open for ourselves. Economically, it seems like Pagosa may have more opportunity for rents and value increases, but I don't know. Any comments any of you can provide as to either of these locations would be great (economics, quality of life, etc).

[Crackerjack]

Both are beautiful. I know Pagosa more so I will talk on it and maybe someone from Manitou can touch on there, again both are thumbs up in my opinion. Pagosa is a pretty city. Pagosa is a small but growing city with ponderosa pines throughout the area. It is somewhat hilly and mountainy, you notice even going in and out of Pagosa on the westside how you climb. It is a resort city so lots of tourists and the hot springs draw people there. It tends to be colder like Alamosa for Southern Colorado, which is generally a mild area, but Pagosa will be on the colder side with more snow. It gets colder as you travel toward Wolfcreek Pass but very pretty. The town Southfork lies over on the other side of Wolfcreek, the same town made famous from the TV cartoon. Be sure wherever you buy to make sure you aren't in a windward canyon. Once I went to a friend's house and all this wind was howling though his place and he said he had to move because it was windy all the time in this canyon and I was shocked because we were in Pagosa and there wasn't any wind and after I left that windy place I ventured back into Pagosa and there was no wind. It was just strange. Pagosa doesn't have many places to shop so most go into Durango. The Pagosa area tends to have more log cabins, wood homes and such while Durango is definitely geared toward the Southwest with adobe, stucco and brick buildings and homes but there are some log homes there too though.

[CarolynW53]

Crackerjack,
Some good friends of ours opened a bakery in Pagosa about 5 years ago and it is on the main street, hwy 160 I think. Only been there once and for the life of me cannot think of the name but believe it is called Pagosa Springs Bakery. Do you know the place? Do you know if rent or land to purchase on the outskirts of Pagosa might be more affordable than Durango area? Pagosa downtown was wonderful how they are fixing up the old buildings rather than tearing down or covering up. I have read alot of your posts and find your information the absolute best. Many others are helpful as well. So glad to have found this forum. Been searching for real estate and information that is more objective for weeks now and found the forum here. This is proving to be a life and time saver for us.

[Crackerjack]

Thank you Carolyn for your kind words. I think the bakery is the Pagosa Baking Company on Pagosa St. A neat place. I have been to the bakery once and thought it was a great place. Pagosa does have a really charming little downtown. They have an excellent Historic Preservation Board. They have been restoring buildings and I think may be the "Mayberry" of Colorado. There are quite a lot of lots and land for sale where you can build later or whenever you wish or you can buy houses outright. Planetpagosa comes to mind. Add the .com after Planetpagosa. It lists info, maps, real estate and such. Land costs are similiar to Durango but I think might be a little cheaper then Durango proper. If you look, you can get a good deal for the beautiful land you get, you just have to do some digging. The Bayfield area would probably be the cheapest to buy land. It is more rolling green hills though then mountains like Pagosa has going for it. Tell your bakery friends "hi" for me if you see them. I will be going over there when I move to Durango. I love their hot springs! Good Luck on your search and move!