Colorado Springs Market Update -- Where are the homes??!!

[James Carlson]

Thought I'd drop a quick update on the Colorado Springs real estate market. The story is sounding pretty ho-hum at this point. Low inventory, high demand, price increases, you know the drill.

Two big numbers from the October Pikes Peak Association of Realtors (PPAR) report:

• 841 active SFH listings
  • Thats a 54% decrease from the 1,940 SFH listings one year ago.
  • For historical context, the last four years or so (which haven't exactly been slow), we saw around 1300-1500 listings in the winter low time and upwards of 2400 listings in the summer high. 
  • September and October are the first two months below 1000 active SFH listings since PPAR started keeping such records in 1995.
• $432,000 average SFH price
  • Surprisingly, not the highest it's been. That was $435,000, which occurred a whopping two months ago in August.
  • This is what happens when inventory is low, demand is high and interest rates are cheap.

What does this mean for investors and home buyers? Be prepared to get competitive. And if you're young and hungry enough, get creative. House hacking still works. That $435,000 house would cost you around $2100/mo with a 5% down payment. If it's a 4/2, that's three rentable bedrooms. Nab $700 each and you're covering your mortgage right there. And you don't have to spend that $435,000 to get a decent house hacking opportunity. Or go for the place with a basement apartment and Airbnb the *#@% out of it or rent it to traveling nurses or remote workers.