A story to make you think

I came across this story today and I just had to comment on it (Click on title for link.) Here we have a gentlemen who openly admits making 25/hr by..........pan handling. The sign he holds says " OLD-TIRED-SICK-HUNGRY CREATIVE BROKE. "
Now I'm no financial genius but making 25/hr hardly characterizes somebody as "broke." Nor is he sick or hungry. This guy makes his money by deceiving us. Now I will give him credit for being brutally honest but this proves the problems with our welfare system. This guy isn't paying taxes, is receiving free health care and is able to eat for free via churches, shelters and food stamps. I would even wager that if this guy wanted to get a university education he would probably qualify to have a full ride grant. All of this while making 25 dollars and hour. WOW! I bring all of this up because (in my humble opinion) the government obviously can't control our welfare system so why would they be able to control our housing crisis. I'm curious to hear opinions on this.

Buyers emerging..... More and more

Data is starting to show that home buyers are starting to jump off of the fence and beginning to put in loan applications to buy property. While I think it's fair to say that this doesn't mean that the market is going to be experiencing an immediate rebound it is great to hear of some positive activity. With interest rates rising slightly, many buyers are wanting to get in on the current low rate while there still is time! More and more economists are saying that the market bottomed out (8) weeks ago and now the bar is starting to rise. GOOD NEWS!!!

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.)

The bottom yet?

As the real estate debacle continues to unsettle our economy, chief economists are very afraid that things will still get worse before they get much better. Colorado Springs has taken its fair share of lumps during this process however it's important to point out that these stats reflect a more national view on real estate and its effect on the economy. Since our appreciation rate has been more on par with modest 3-5% annuals return rates our housing market has been very protected from owners owing more on their loans then their houses are appraising for. Remember, things are bad but they could definitely be worse.