Brief by Allen Best
Economy – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
Newspapers in the mountain towns of Colorado keep looking for evidence of the tsunami of housing foreclosures hitting their communities. The real estate market has definitely slowed down, but nobody seems to find a wall of foreclosures about to crash.
A case in point is a report in the Sky-Hi Daily News, which reported that Grand County in the first two months recorded 29 foreclosures, compared to 59 for all of last year.
Christina Whistmer, the Grand County treasurer, said foreclosures are “only slightly up.” Susan Penta, the marketing director for Grand Elk, a housing project geared to upper-middle-class vacation-home buyers, maintained that the second-home market is generally healthy. “The vacation home buyer generally has the discretionary income to withstand the current storm.”
But to Ross Cooney, who built three prize-winning homes in the $500,000 to $1 million category in Granby’s Grand Elk project, hoping to later find buyers, the current storm is substantial. “I really like Granby and I like Grand Elk. It’s a beautiful spot. But boy, the economy is a disaster.”
The newspaper also tells of a foreclosed property, originally priced at $800,000, which was sold at an auction for $350,000.
