COLORADO SPRINGS — The hot housing market may have cooled in Colorado Springs but builders say it is not cold.
“I'm still definitely bullish on Colorado Springs,” said Housing and Building Association President, Mark Reyner, “I think we still have a good market here. We're more affordable than some other towns in Colorado.”
Whether new or pre-owned houses are staying on the market longer.
The rush to buy has now changed to a more restrained approach.
“People are absolutely being more cautious right now, particularly with interest rates.”
The rise in interest rates over the past year pushed up mortgage rates.
It pushes up monthly payments.
At the same time, builders still need to sell houses.
“They're running a business,” said Reyner
Builders are starting to see some breaks in material costs that spiked during the pandemic.
“The last couple of years, we saw the highest lumber prices in history. And they've come back down to same levels that they were similar to, what, four or five years ago,” said Reyner.
Lumber is now close to half the price from a year ago.
It likely won’t bring down new housing prices,
“There's still challenges with pricing on other materials that are part of the overall equation of homebuilding,” said Reyner, “So trying to balance all of that, to remain competitive is definitely a challenge.”
It is enough of a break to factor into flattening price increases.
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