The 2010 Colorado Springs Real Estate market is officially underway!  There are a lot of numbers and indicators about the market and what 2010 holds for us locally as well as nationally.

Wrapping up the first week in February, mortgage interest rates rose above 5% ending the week at 5.01% for a 30 year fixed rate.  Keeping this rise in perspective, the 30 year rate was 5.25% one year ago.  Fifteen year rates are at 4.4% compared to 4.92% one year ago.  To obtain the rates, an average of 0.5 point to 1 point is required.  Rates are quite stable for the time being.  The Mortgage Bankers Association reports that...

mortgage applications jumped by 10% during the end of January.

SpringsBlog is wrapping up its analysis of the local market ending January 31 and will be posting those numbers in the coming days.  The market is gearing up for the 2010 season; new homes will be coming on the market freshly painted and new carpet in place.  Watch the blog for links to some of our favorite new and featured listings.

An interesting real estate number coming out of 2009 reflects that new construction accounted for 7.6% of all home sales.  Over the previous two decades, new constructions accounted for an AVERAGE of 16% of the market.  This is an astonishing shift in market share.  Many markets saw thousands of new homes annually during the peak of the bubble.  The ability of the home building industry to survive, adapt and thrive is the ultimate maneuver of any industry in this economy.  SpringsBlog has been reporting that the average size of new home construction is decreasing rapidly; a move that meets the need of today's buyer.  In addition, the homebuilding community has been consistently holding to a message and delivering on that message:  reducing price, reducing construction time and warning prospective buyers about the pitfalls of buying a foreclosed home.  The reduction is pricing is a possibility thanks to cheaper land costs.  The price of a lot can dramatically affect the final price of a new home.  Builders who have adapted to the new world of real estate are quite busy and finding plenty of clients.

The foreign real estate markets couldn't vary more than at present.  On the surface, the overall market in China is strong.  There are some concerns about a bubble, but the rules of the market are very different than in the U.S. or Europe.  The typical down payment is 40% and lending restrictions are much tighter.  40% of transactions are cash.  Land is the major determinant of prices since the Chinese population is roughly 5 times that of the U.S. with about the same land mass putting a great deal of pressure of prices.  To stem inflation, the Chinese State Council has issued eleven points on regulation of the real estate industry.  In addition, lending practices have begun to tighten in the form of down payment.