The Hammond Real Estate Report

The Colorado Springs real estate market, along with the rest of the state, continues to face the fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis. According to a March 17, 2010 article in the Denver Business Journal, “Both real estate foreclosure filings and sales in Colorado rose in February year over year, largely because a moratorium on foreclosures no longer is in place this year, according to a report Wednesday by the Colorado Division of Housing.” The piece continued to note that “Foreclosure filings increased 6.5 percent in February to 3,042 last month from 2,856 in February of last year. But they were down nearly 14 percent from 3,535 in February 2008. Foreclosure filings are the initial documents, filed with county public trustee’s offices, that are used to start the foreclosure process. That process ends with the sale of a property at auction, unless debt related to the property is repaid.”

One particular segment of Colorado Springs real estate for sale, commercial real estate, is in an especially tight spot, according to a March 13, 2010 article in the Colorado Springs Gazette. The piece found that “As dissimilar as they are, a small shopping center in unincorporated Falcon, an apartment complex on Colorado Springs’ southeast side and a mini-warehouse storage facility near Peterson Air Force Base have something in common: They all fell into foreclosure last year – signs of a distressed local commercial real estate market that experts fear will worsen in 2010.”

One bright spot for Colorado Springs homes for sale was noted by a March 1, 2010 article also in the Colorado Springs Gazette, which noted that “The pace of homebuilding jumped last month to its highest level in nearly two years, while foreclosure filings might be stabilizing, according to a pair of reports released Monday.” The piece, composed by Rich Laden, continued to say that “Single-family homebuilding permits totaled 166 in February in Colorado Springs and El Paso County, a more than threefold increase from 53 permits during the same month a year ago, a Pikes Peak Regional Building Department Report said.”