Total new-home closings: 2,076
Population: 686,908
The good: More buyers selected single-family homes in the first months of 2015.
The bad: Early figures showed a decline in the new-home market as prices rise at the start of the year.
The bottom line: Only a slight year-over-year decline in year-to-date permits in March 2015 shows that things may be down, but still going.
As new-home prices trend upward and sales are down, the first few months of the year indicate that 2015 will produce no gold rush for builders in Colorado Springs. In February, new-home closings fell by 2.2% year over year, only to post an even steeper decline year over year in March of 2.9%. The percentage of new homes making up the overall housing market also fell year over year in March to 12.8%, from 15.4% a year earlier, perhaps reflecting an increase among the average sales price occurring year over year in February to $321,160. But March numbers show that more buyers are selecting single-family homes, which held 88.5% of market share that month. Meanwhile, a drop in year-to-date single-family permits of 2% year over year in March may show that while things are slower, builders are still at it in 2015—gold rush or no gold rush.
