‘Have we seen the bottom yet?'

Home prices and sales fell again last month in the Pikes Peak region, as economists try to determine if the local market has reached bottom.

The median price of homes sold in April declined to $207,750, a 2.6 percent drop when compared with the same month last year, according to figures released Wednesday by the Pikes Peak Association of Realtors.

It was the ninth consecutive decline in yearover-year prices. Housing sales have declined each month for about two years, coming off record sales in 2005.

The median is the midpoint of prices, with half of April's homes selling for more than $207,750 and the other half selling for less.

Home sales dropped 13.8 percent in April compared with the same time a year ago, the Realtors association reported.

The supply of homes listed for sale rose 2 percent last month, although the number of homes being added to the overall inventory of listings dropped 10 percent in April when compared with a year ago.

The association's figures are based on home sales handled by its members, which represent a majority of all transactions. Most of the homes were sold in El Paso and Teller counties.

"The question everybody seems to be asking is, have we seen the bottom yet?" said Springs economist David Bamberger of research firm Bamberger & Associates, who has worked for the housing industry.

The bottom probably will come this summer, Bamberger said. But a recovery - rising prices and rebounding sales - will be slow, and he said he doubts the local market will see significant improvement until 2009.

Fred Crowley, a senior economist at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, said the market has hit or is near the bottom, based on his examination of local home sales and supply.

But even if the market has hit bottom, there are no signs it's gaining strength, Crowley added.

The market will be challenged by tighter borrowing rules on the part of national lenders, Crowley and Bamberger said.

Lenders want buyers to have higher credit scores and make bigger down payments, Bamberger said.

"Lender underwriting criteria has swung," he said. "The pendulum has gone the other way. It's really tight."

Tougher borrowing rules are a result of the nation's mortgage crisis, in which too many loans were made to so-called subprime buyers with poor credit histories. Many of those loans included adjustable interest rates.

When interest rates began to rise, many borrowers who could least afford rising home payments fell into foreclosure. El Paso County had a record number of foreclosures in 2007 and is on pace for another record this year.

As foreclosed homes come back on the market, economists and real estate experts say, they're often sold at a discount - driving down overall prices and creating competition for the resale and new home markets.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0228 or rich.laden@gazette.com

NATION FEELING PINCH

Pending home sales dropped to a new low in March, an industry group said Wednesday. The National Association of Realtors' seasonally adjusted index of pending sales for existing homes fell to 83.0 from a downwardly revised February reading of 83.8, the index's previous low.

A reading of 100 is equal to the average level of sales activity in 2001, when the index started. The index stood at 103.9 in March 2007.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS