While I don’t think these are exactly the awards you end up bragging about, here are some of the “winners”:

- Worst intersection: Briargate Parkway and Powers Boulevard

- Most dangerous highway interchange: Woodmen Road and I-25

- Busiest intersection: Constitution Avenue and Powers Boulevard

The article explains the criteria for these rankings, which includes injuries, fatalities, volume and crashes. It also analyzes the rise and fall of traffic density in certain parts of the city. Overall, a very interesting and informative read.

I wrote back in November about the dangers of texting and driving, and how doing so affects the safety of everyone on the road. Of course I want the Colorado Springs New Homes area to be a safe place for people, and driving is certainly a big part of the whole safety sphere. So sharing statistics and information like this is not a way for me to worry you or say “Watch out!” Rather, I hope to increase reader awareness of things that can improve the safety of everyone in our city.

Brian Wilson, Colorado Springs New Homes Real Estate

I think Colorado Springs is only home to two major skate parks, Gossage Skate Park within the Gossage Youth Sports Complex, and John L. Stone Park by the Briargate YMCA, so building a new one farther south does several things:

- brings the fun closer to home for skaters and cyclists in the Fountain-Fort Carson area

- creates a safe, fun, interest-specific park within the already popular Memorial Park

- caters to an already popular and continually growing demographic

We have plenty of basketball courts, baseball diamonds, soccer fields and running tracks in the Colorado Springs New Homes area. So the addition of the new skate park will level the playing field, in a way, and will give many people without a nearby skate park a place to spend their free time with friends and other like-minded individuals. While there is no word as to when the park will open, I think we can probably anticipate its opening by next spring, assuming plans are put into motion very soon.

Brian Wilson, Colorado Springs New Homes Real Estate

Among the “bigwigs and startups [flocking] to Colorado, betting the state is undergoing a seismic shift in the way it develops energy for the future”:

- Abengoa Solar, a Spain-based solar technology company with a branch in Lakewood

- Vestas, a Danish company billing itself “the world’s leading supplier of wind power solutions”

- Camco International, a London-based company, “wants to work on local projects to develop aggregate carbon credits”

Not all of the logistics within the growing plans have been determined, however; for instance, the lack of proper local workforce is something companies will need to overcome. But the overall outlook is promising, many pieces are in place, and Colorado appears poised to become a major player in the global renewable-energy enterprise. The whole article is very interesting and exciting, but too lengthy to discuss in detail here, so I encourage you to take a look.

The implications here are obvious and good, especially when projected on the Colorado Springs New Homes area: potential increase in value for homes tapping into renewable energy; increased interest in Colorado as more companies look to tap into our state’s resources; and an overall boost to our state’s economy.

Brian Wilson, Colorado Springs New Homes Real Estate

- 2007’s foreclosure rate is not the worst on record, as “the late 1980s were worse because there were a similar number of foreclosures spread over a smaller population”

- “Home sales were down in 2007, but only if compared with records set in recent years”

- There will be around 3,000 foreclosures and 9,000 sales in 2008

Brian also predicted fewer new homes and more investors will “boost demand, shrink inventory and keep prices stable.” And if a similar pattern is repeated in 2009, we will likely see a significant local market turnaround within the next two years!

Meanwhile, Mike Anderson, Colorado Springs’ assistant city manager and an economist, was a bit less optimistic in presenting his forecast for the local economy. Mike presented the facts in saying there is an increased risk of recession nationally, but he also said “Department of Defense spending at local military installations, along with the presence of defense contractors, will help cushion [the Colorado Springs new homes area] against a national downturn.”

Brian Wilson, Colorado Springs New Homes Real Estate

- It can take more than a thousand years for a disposable plastic bag to break down in a landfill.

- Most reusable bags can be used thousands of times and there are so many reusable bag options!

- Thousands of customers and Team Members support our Core Value to “care about our communities and the environment.”

Shoppers will now be encouraged to use reusable bags, 50,000 of which were distributed for free by Whole Foods last week. I think this is a great move because, as one of the leading environmentally-conscious companies in the U.S., Whole Foods may be able to set an example for other stores using plastic bags by the thousands, even millions, each day, other grocery stores like King Soopers and Albertsons, and other major shopping destinations like Wal-Mart and Target. Charles McDonald, a real estate agent and blogger in Virginia, puts it well: “I predict that this trend will go to other store chains very quickly,” an assertion I agree with and would like to see happen, especially in the Colorado Springs New Homes area.

Brian Wilson, Colorado Springs New Homes Real Estate

“Home sales bring to mind great depression”

Sorry? Come again? Is that headline really necessary, really the best way to write a story? Well that’s not the worst of it. Read into the story and you find out this isn’t the media’s doing but is instead based on information from Lawrence Yun, the National Association of Realtors’ chief economist.

Yun “said it was likely the country has not experienced a decline in home prices for an entire year since the Great Depression.” All right, facts are facts, so give us the facts. But making a comparison like this doesn’t help our situation, Mr. Yun; saying things like this fuels the media’s fire and gives us headlines like this and causes the public to become even more wary of participating in the real estate market, even if they are in genuine need of buying or selling and even though now is as good a time to buy as any, especially in the Colorado Springs New Homes area.

I must say I am frustrated today by this story, but now that I have expressed that frustration I will look past it and continue to maintain my positive outlook and work hard to do my part to encourage and help the local market turn around. Thank you.

Brian Wilson, Colorado Springs New Homes Real Estate

This is particularly good for this part of town because, first of all, education opportunities increase for the area, and also because Eastern El Paso County “has the lowest completion rate for post secondary education in the region,” according to PPCC. Furthermore:

- “40 to 50 percent of residents have no degree or certificate beyond high school” immediately around where the campus will be

- about 600 students will be able to attend the campus, at which 180 courses are initially planned

- District 49 students will be able to take college-level courses and receive credit toward both high school and college graduation

What’s more, PPCC as a whole is expected to receive “as many as 700 new students from troop relocation to Fort Carson over the next few years,” so the new campus will help relieve congestion among the other campuses in the Colorado Springs New Homes area. So it looks like we have a win-win-win situation: more people will receive a college education, high school students will have the chance to experience college while still in high school, and, once again, the Fort Carson situation will prove to play a role in another aspect of our economy. This small campus means big things for Falcon.

Brian Wilson, Colorado Springs New Homes Real Estate

- “Families with children would receive an additional $300 per child, subject to an overall cap of perhaps $1,200″

- The likely rebate recipients would be “individuals earning $75,000 or less and couples with incomes of $150,000 or less”

- “Workers would have to have earned at least $3,000 in 2007 to receive the rebates”

Approximately $150 billion will be set aside to accomplish the deal, so there will be a limit as to how many people receive rebates, but the aforementioned criteria ought to help whittle the list down. I genuinely am excited for this, because people who really need the money will receive the money first. And just as our economy will receive some breathing room from military activity, so too will many families and businesses receive some breathing room in their bank accounts. I’ll keep my eyes open for further developments on this one.

Brian Wilson, Colorado Springs New Homes Real Estate

According to Fred Crowley, senior economist and associate research professor at UCCS, the cut signifies “we are not in a position that can be reversed at this point,” as a recession has followed every aggressive fed cut rate, he said. The good news here, however, is that Crowley said the Pikes Peak Region, which includes the Colorado Springs New Homes area, will not be hit as hard as much of the nation by the possible recession, for two main reasons:

(more…)

The 2007 Gazette-El Pomar Empty Stocking Fund, which ended Friday (Jan. 18), “raised a record $1.147 million during December and January, blowing past its $1 million goal.”

Read that again: people contributed $147,000 beyond the anticipated goal — WOW!

Here’s what Gazette Charities manager Amanda Mountain had to say about the donations: “In what many see as a challenging economy, the only constant is that through the generosity of neighbors helping neighbors, our community can be a place of hope and promise for everyone.”

I feel like Amanda verbalized what I’ve been trying to say for a while now at Colorado Springs New Homes: the situation is only as bad as your outlook. Here we have major news sources reporting daily on the slumping real estate market and how long it will take for it to turn around; we know the economy isn’t at its best, and we know many people in our city are struggling. These are all facts. And we can let them bring us down or we can do something about them, and today’s story is a reminder that people in our city can — and do — care very much about the well-being of others despite all the negative news affecting us each day.

Because our city chose a positive outlook and donated generously, 14 nonprofit agencies will receive money raised through the Empty Stocking Fund, including American Red Cross, Children/Chins Up Center, Ecumenical Social Ministries and Westside CARES.

Brian Wilson, Colorado Springs New Homes Real Estate