COLORADO SPRINGS — Finding affordable housing in Southern Colorado continues to be a challenge but how is inflation impacting the home buying process in our region?
According to a recent report by the Pikes Peak Association of Realtors, the number of homes listed in June in Colorado Springs was almost triple the amount listed a year ago. And for the first time since 2019, the number of homes for sale in the Colorado Springs area topped 2,000. You may be thinking, that more inventory means now is the time to buy a home, but we spoke with an economics expert who said to wait until the wintertime. Here’s why.
The cost of housing is very expensive right now. And our population continues to grow, eating up some of the available inventory. As of May, Colorado is the fourth most expensive state for housing according to Zillow research done through World Population Review.
While the median home price in May was about 560,000, it was just under 500,000 in June according to Pikes Peak Realtor Services Corp. What this means is housing is still very high but there are resources available to help home buyers.
“We are just small enough I think that people talk about this. It’s in front of the city council, it’s in front of county commissioners, for instance, El Paso County has a “turnkey program” to help first-time home buyers, we have a lot of veterans in the area who can take advantage of first-time financing,” said Tatiana Bailey, Director of UCCS Economic Forum in the College of Business.
“There are programs out there, but we have to raise awareness and we also have to work as a community, holistically. A lot of development out east, and I think that’s absolutely going to be necessary.”
You may be wondering what is causing the shift. One reason is nationally the housing market is seeing a change due to rising interest rates. Rates that were previously around 3 percent are now climbing up to 5 and 6 percent. This is stopping some people from purchasing a home. It’s also impacting who can get approved for more expensive loans.
This brings about the question a lot of you may be wondering at home Are we in a recession?
Bailey says we are likely to be in a recession once the second-quarter GDP is released at the end of July. She thinks it will come out negative, as it did in the first quarter.
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