Fred Crowley Helps Sniff Out The Truth About The Colorado Springs Market

I had the pleasure of speaking with Fred Crowley (Southern Colorado Economist) about his data on Colorado Springs and its real estate market. Fred gave a lecture on how we are actually seeing a 1.8% annual increase in property values (remember, that number is an average for all neighborhoods combined.) Granted, if one were to track the data back 10 years you would find that in general, Colorado Springs properties generally appreciated about 5%/year. Though the numbers are down I think that it's important to realize that things could be much worse. We have an office in Las Vegas and the things that some of the owners are having to go through are very disturbing. So though this data that Fred presented on the Pikes Peak region looked positive, I still had the question that I am sure you all want to know as well; "When is the market going to get better and when will sellers begin to see a little more bargaining leverage?" The short answer was Spring 2010. The longer more complicated answer was somewhere between Fall 2009 and Summer 2010. Not only are we experiencing a influx of military, but Colorado Springs got ranked on Kiplinger's top 10 list of best places to Live, Work and Play. This is all great news.
I will talk more in my next post about how the presidential election can help jolt our economy (regardless of who wins.)