the prospective homeowner will be required to put 20% down and have repaired their credit.  Unfortunately, the prospective homeowners may have credit problems that will take more than two years to correct.  The logic of the program is that down the road, post recovery, when employed and financially stable again, previously distressed homeowners will need to be able to reenter the housing market.  Earlier entry will help the overall housing market continue to grow.

This week, the latest Case Shiller numbers were released.  Starting off with Denver, the region geographically close to the Pikes Peak region and historically similar to our activity, the year over year analysis indicates a 3.6% gain in home prices.  The media has focused on the decline noted since January, reversing a recent trend.  Among cities in the 20 city index, eighteen saw an increase in year over year analysis.  The positive increases were strong enough to push the 10 (up 1.4%) and 20 (up 0.6%) city index into positive territory.  Dallas and Portland were the exceptions to the upward trend.  The S & P spokesperson fell short of calling the trend a confirmed sign of housing market recovery.  This may just be further stabilization.  Springsblog has been warning since last fall about the shadow inventory of pending foreclosures to hit the market this summer may cause a slight to moderate double dip in pricing.  The latest Case Shiller report discussed this as the primary reason for not yet calling the upward trend in pricing a sign of recovery.  The level of foreclosure activity is hitting some of the highest numbers seen since the housing market fell.  Some areas of the country cannot claim to have hit bottom yet.  Six areas showed the lowest housing price levels since hitting peaks in 2006/07.  These areas are Charlotte, Las Vegas, New York, Seattle, Portland and Tampa.  At 11.9%, San Francisco shows the highest year over year increase.  At -14.6%, Las Vegas continues to the king of the declining real estate market.  For cities in continued decline, the market is in a tough place.  Investors are curious and first time homebuyers are poised but don't want to put in contracts until they are confident the market is at rock bottom.  Unfortunately, no one can say when this will happen until prices trend upward and it is clear the decline is over.  Colorado, as a state, and Colorado Springs, as a region, have been extremely fortunate because while some areas have fallen, others have increased averaging out to make the middle to lower end of the market a safe place to be.