Can Colorado Springs measure up against a recent barometer the Wall Street Journal published about predicting home value stability and increase? (http://www.smartmoney.com/personal-finance/real-estate/6-signs-your-home-will-increase-in-value/?hpadref=1) The key indicators, according the WSJ article include unemployment rate, rising incomes, declining foreclosures, declining inventory, shrinking list to price ratios, and decreasing sales price. Let's break it down...
- Unemployment ending September 2009 (most recent available) for Colorado Springs is at 7.2% compared to 7.6% for August. While this is still higher than a year ago, the number does appear to be stabilizing.
- To determine if incomes are rising requires a little bit of research but if you follow the links provided in the article, you can see that for the three years most recently reported, the per capita income has increased for each of the three years.
- Foreclosures continue to be an issue that the area must grapple with so this will continue to weaken overall value. As we have discussed on SpringsBlog previously, certain areas such as Black Forest are struggling with this. The foreclosure barometer is best measured by MLS area.
- If you read our recent post on the 3rd quarter 2009 stats, we discussed that the PPMLS numbers clearly are indicating declining inventory, shrinking discounts and decreasing sales prices. If the WSJ's indicators are correct, SpringsBlog is confident that Colorado Springs passes the test.
