Affordable New Homes in Monument Still Possible

10 minutes north of the Colorado Springs Chapel Hills Mall is the town of Monument, and any discussion of living in Colorado Springs is not complete without it. Historically it has not been an area famous for affordable homes, especially new homes. This weekend however we wrote a contract to build a new home for one of my clients in the Trails End subdivision, west of I25 and north of Baptist Road, for under $250,000 with Richmond Homes. Affordable new homes in Colorado Springs and the surrounding areas is something we always seem to need more of, so I thought I’d share a few details about this area.

  Monument is a popular place to live for people who want to live in Colorado Springs as a metro area, but have additional requirements, such as:

• Ready access to Denver (it is about 30 minutes to Denvers Park Meadows Mall and the Denver Tech Center, and less than 1 hour to Denver International Airport)
• Top notch schools (Lewis Palmer D38 is always among the top 3 districts test score wise)
• Smaller town atmosphere. The Trilakes area (that Monument is part of) has only 20,000 residents or so.
• Great access to regional trails and National Forest. The New Santa Fe Trail goes right by the subdivision, Mt Herman Road and Pike National Forest access is 5 minutes, and Fox Run Regional Park is only 10 minutes or so.
• Convenient shopping and dining opportunities
• A cooler, wetter (and snowier) climate overall than Colorado Springs proper

  Richmond advertises homes starting in the upper 100’s here, but realistically, since they have lot premiums on every lot, there are no homes being built in here for less than about $220,000. Still, that is a very good price point for new construction in such a nice area. When buying from Richmond, there are a couple of things to be aware of:

• to receive their incentives (which seem to change by the day), you must use their lender
• to receive their incentives, you also must use their insurance company for your hazard insurance, at least at closing
• they do not guarantee (although they believe they will be able to do it) delivery before the First Time Homebuyers Tax Credit closing deadline of 6/30/2010.
• all of their sales literature shows only the above grade square footage of their homes, but in fact they include a full (albeit unfinished) basement with their homes. The Colorado Springs MLS homes for sale are all shown with total, above grade, and finished square footage separately, so when comparing square footage with resale homes, you have to keep this in mind.

We have added an extensive new construction section to our web site, please see also:

• Colorado Springs New Construction
• Colorado Springs New Home Communities
• Colorado Springs Builder Directory

If new construction is part of your dream of living in Colorado Springs, please call me at 719-590-4768 or email rick@ricksellscolorado.com and let’s discuss your needs!