Archive for the 'Colorado Articles' Category

Better profit prospects are on hand for investors in Colorado Springs repo homes as the city, together with Denver, topped all other metro areas in the mountain west in pace of economic recovery in the first quarter, based on records from Brookings Institute.

Brookings analysts said that Colorado Springs had the lowest number of job lost in the region that includes Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and Mexico. Colorado Springs and Denver also experienced economic growth during the quarter and have already surpassed their gross metro product levels before the recession.

In compiling their mountain west economic report, Brookings analysts studied jobs, production output, repossessed properties for sale and house prices.

Despite the positive economic developments in Colorado Springs and in Denver, six of the largest metro areas in the region are still struggling and their unemployment rates are still rising.

However, foreclosure activity across Colorado slowed down substantially over the month in May. The number of new foreclosure filings dropped by 18.4 percent to 2,633 compared to the total in April, based on numbers from the state housing division. It was the lowest total for any month over the past 18 months.

The number of residential units that became repo homes in Colorado also dropped in May, with the number of homes posted for foreclosure auction falling to 1,459. This number, however, is still relatively high for buyers looking for Colorado Springs repo homes and other foreclosures in the state.

In another report, the foreclosure pace in Colorado also decelerated in May by 24.1 percent over the month and by 0.7 percent over the year. As its foreclosure rate of one foreclosure filing for every 444 homes marked a drop from both April 2010 and May 2009, its tenth rate ranking in May improved to 12th, with Maryland taking its place on the chart.

All in all, investors in Colorado Springs repo homes and residents hope that the recovery in the metro area continues to step up.

A group of commercial repo homes and other commercial properties in Snowmass Village, Colorado will be controlled by New York-based Related Companies in an agreement with Bank of America, which lent $110 million to acquire the properties.

The properties include three Sonnenblick Condominiums, the Snowmass Mountain Chalet, the Snowmass Inn and the Snowmass Center Commercial Center.

On June 30, documents were filed in Pitkin County for the transfer of deeds of trust of the repossessed properties from Bank of America to acquiring firm Related Companies.

The properties were used as collateral in taking out the $110 million loan from BofA by limited liability companies reportedly run by Pat Smith, who was the former head of developer Related WestPac.

The 5 properties were foreclosed in April and are set to be sold through a public auction on August 26.

Bill Boineau, the mayor of Snowmass Village, said that the foreclosures put some certainty on the ownership and operations of the properties, but he expressed hope that the Moebius family and other smaller partners, will be protected in the proceedings.

Boineau said that the Moebius family, who built the Silvertree Hotel and who bought the Snowmass Inn from a foreclosure over 30 years ago, were pioneers and contributed a lot to what Snowmass is enjoying today.

Related Companies, the managing partner of the entity developing Snowmass, is the one foreclosing on the limited liability companies, based on county court records. Related, which has $10 billion in portfolio holdings, is believed to be the financier of Related WestPac.

Mark Moebius said he did not know that the Snowmass Inn, which his family still operates, was used as collateral and is not updated about the details of the foreclosure proceedings. He however said that he heard that Related Companies was working out something that could benefit his family.

On the other hand, he said, any foreclosure proceedings could end his family’s interest in Snowmass Inn. But he keeps faith that Related Companies will consider his family’s interest.

Lawyer and town official Arnie Mordkin said the foreclosures will ultimately benefit the town because the identity of who is really in control of the properties will be known and the future of properties such as Snowmass Center will become more certain.

Snowmass Center has a lot of tenants most of whom are local merchants and small business operators.

Local businessmen said they hope Related Companies will be able to carry out projects that would be beneficial to the community.