Jun 09 2009

Homes Near Fort Carson

Published by admin under Colorado Springs Real Estate

With the all the soldiers coming to Fort Carson over the summer housing will be a big concern for many. If your PCSing to Fort Carson and going to be looking for a home you will come across many homes in the Fountain and Colorado Springs area that are short sales. A short sale is a home about to go into foreclosure but the lender has agreed to accept less than what’s owed on the home. Short  sales can be a great deals but let me caution you I’ve seen them take anywhere from a  month to 5 1/2 months to close and only 50% close.  If you need a home now a short sale may not be the best way to go but if you can wait it out and know there’s a chance you may not get the home then go for it.  One other thing with the influx of soldiers homes priced in the $100,000 to $200,000 will be brisk. If you find a home you like don’t wait as it may not be there when you finally decide to make an offer.

I’ve posted some useful links here to help you with your  home search.

$100,000-$200,000 Homes in Fountain near Fort Carson

Search all Homes For Sale to include Rental Homes

I’m a Realtor with Keller Williams Partners Realty. I’m retired Army and have lived in the area since 1993.  If I can be of any assistance to you feel free to call me Ken Asher (719) 930-7817

No responses yet

Jun 06 2009

Soldiers leaving the Rockies to move mountains

Published by admin under News

Rows of green duffle bags were hoisted onto buses, malaria pills were accounted for, and about 300 soldiers cradling their guns were on their way to Afghanistan.

“It’s a little rough,” said Sgt. Joshua Danison. “But, at the same time, you understand it’s your job.”

The last large group from the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division left Fort Carson on Friday for a yearlong deployment in the rugged terrain of the Afghan mountains.

The 3,500-member brigade is the first major Fort Carson combat unit sent to fight in Afghanistan. After serving in some of Baghdad’s most dangerous neighborhoods during the 2007 troop buildup, the brigade will now patrol the border with Pakistan, including the notoriously dangerous Khyber Pass that Rudyard Kipling called “a sword cut through the mountains.”

The brigade has been training since its return from Iraq in January 2008 to battle on foot in terrain that vehicles can’t reach - and to fight a different style than the urban warfare of Iraq.

“In Afghanistan, they actually stand and fight. In Iraq, they blow you up and run away,” said Sgt. Robert Speier, who served in Iraq with a different unit and then reenlisted.

The soldiers gathered at the Special Events Center at Fort Carson to say goodbye to their families and prepare for departure.

“Stay safe” was the chorus from those staying behind, knowing that not all of them will.

Many of the soldiers said they were nervous, but also ready to go.

Pvt. Brian Davison toyed with his M4 and explained that he joined the Army because the “economy is crappy,” and it is the best way to make a life for the woman he plans to marry when he comes home.

For others, it’s much more than that. “I’ve been wanting to do this job since I was 4 years old,” said Pfc. Aaron Weaver.

Meanwhile, 1st Lt. William Fio Rito, a West Point grad, is headed into combat for the first time, where he will lead many men who have already served in Iraq. The officer seemed more focused on his performance than his safety.

“It has been a long time coming, so I’m ready to put to use things I’ve learned over the past six years and see how I do,” he said.

Sgt. Paul Miller is one of the men who was with this same brigade in Iraq. What advice does he give the guys who haven’t seen combat before?

“Duck.”

THE GAZETTE

One response so far

May 07 2009

Soldiers excited, apprehensive about move to Fort Carson

Published by admin under News

FORT HOOD, Texas • Scores of soldiers Tuesday crowded around tables piled with literature extolling the virtues of the Pikes Peak region at the start of a week long event to introduce them to their new home.

The 2,000 or so troops who will attend the Mountain Post Welcome are the first of 6,500 soldiers who will move to Fort Carson this summer. The initial group at a Fort Hood conference center showed excitement, anxiety and even resentment and anger over the move.

“There are three groups,” explained Mike Stevens as he helped patrol a Better Business Bureau booth. “The first group doesn’t want to go. The second group is excited about going. The third group is scared and unsure. That’s the biggest group.”

The Army started planning to move the 4th Infantry Division’s headquarters and its 1st Brigade Combat Team from Texas to Colorado in 2005. In a few weeks, those soldiers and their families will start moving at a rate that could top 100 per day through the summer.

Colorado Springs businesses, beset by the sagging economy, are drooling over their arrival. City leaders are planning a massive parade downtown in August to welcome the newcomers.

But on the ground in Texas, the warm feelings of Colorado Springs seemed to be doing little to offset the stress of packing for the unknown.

“You don’t want to talk to me,” said Dina Garza as she and her husband, Staff Sgt. Billy Garza, toured booths about schools and real estate. “I don’t want to go.”

Lifelong Texans, the Garzas have family in San Antonio who will be 800 miles farther away when they move to Colorado.

And while folks at Fort Hood didn’t seem to mind the sticky humidity that hung there Tuesday, many picture Colorado Springs as the Ice Age.

“I’m terrified of snow,” Dina Garza said.

The welcome event is designed to calm fears of the Colorado-bound soldiers by providing information about the community they’ll be joining.

“A lot of the younger soldiers have never (moved) before,” said Maj. Michele Thompson, who coordinated the event. “It’s stressful.”

One of the bigger worries for the troops is where to enroll their children in school. Killeen, Texas, the town next to Fort Hood, has a single school district.

“One of the things that surprises them is choice,” said Elaine Naleski, a Colorado Springs School District 11 spokeswoman who spent the day explaining the dizzying array of public, private and charter schools.

The families also wanted to know about the mountains. Fort Hood is near rolling hills, but the biggest visual feature in all directions is the horizon.

The community here is centered around Fort Hood, which is home to more than 30,0000 soldiers.

“It will be nice to be in a real city for a change,” said Capt. Lara Chapman, who has visited Colorado and said she couldn’t be happier about the move.

The biggest advantage of Colorado Springs is the opportunities - from shopping to recreation - it will give soldiers’ families, said 1st Sgt. Donald Kenney.

Happier families, he said, will mean soldiers who are better at their jobs.

EVENT DETAILS

The welcome event at Fort Hood in Texas was designed to calm fears of the Colorado-bound soldiers by providing information about the community they’ll be joining.

TOM ROEDER
THE GAZETTE

Search For Homes

No responses yet

Apr 30 2009

Fort Carson will gain a division headquarters unit this summer, and it will lose one too, post officials announced Friday.

Published by admin under News

The announcement followed the Pentagon budget proposal Monday threatening to cut 3,500 soldiers planned for the post, and represents a far smaller blow. As the headquarters of the 4th Infantry Division moves to Fort Carson from Fort Hood, Texas, Division West of the First Army, with about 300 soldiers and civilians, will move to Fort Hood.

Division West is a training headquarters responsible for ensuring that National Guard and Army Reserve troops in the western U.S. are prepared for war.

Because so many part-time troops are trained at Fort Hood, the move will allow Division West leaders to more closely oversee their progress, said Maj. Gen. Mark Graham, Division West commander.

Division West was formed at Fort Carson two years ago when the Army changed how it organized part-time units. It replaced the 7th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, which was a headquarters over several National Guard brigades.

Division West’s departure likely won’t be noticed outside Fort Carson’s gates.

This summer, the post is set to add 6,500 soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division headquarters and its 3,800-soldier 1st Brigade Combat Team.

Graham said soldiers from those units have started to trickle into the post, but the spigot will open up soon.

“The majority of them will come up this summer when schools let out,” Graham said.

Whether a fifth brigade will be formed at Fort Carson remains in limbo. A budget proposal from Defense Secretary Robert Gates would eliminate creation of the 3,500-soldier brigade, which officials two years ago announced was moving to the post by 2013.

Congressional leaders including Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, expressed optimism that the troops will be awarded to the post.

Graham said he hasn’t heard any word on the plan.

“Right now we have been told nothing,” he said. “This is working at Army level and at Army Forces Command.”

Tom Roeder
The Gazette

No responses yet

Feb 19 2009

Living costs in Springs at 18-year low in 2008

Published by admin under News

Local living costs were 7.2 percent below the national average during 2008, the lowest level for any full year since 1990, according to a quarterly survey of 322 metropolitan areas by the Council for Community and Economic Research. Living costs in the Springs have declined compared with the national average every year since 2003. Living costs in Springs at 18-year low in 2008″This is good news; the last time we saw numbers this weak, it was a significant economic development advantage. Hopefully, the low costs will again attract jobs here,” said Fred Crowley, senior economist for the Southern Colorado Economic Forum.

The local index fell mostly because its transportation component, which primarily measures gasoline prices, dropped from 4.2 percent above the national average during 2007 to slightly below the average last year. That’s because local gasoline prices, which had been 3 cents below the national median, rose 22.6 percent to $3.25 a gallon, while the national median price jumped 31.4 percent to $3.44 a gallon.

Despite record gasoline prices last July, living costs in the Colorado Springs area fell last year to an 18-year low, mostly because fuel prices rose more slowly locally than in the rest of the nation, according to a national survey.Other components measuring local housing and grocery costs rose slightly, but remained below the national average, while local health care costs moved even further above the average. Costs for local utility service and miscellaneous items both moved further below average.

The council’s cost-of-living index doesn’t measure inflation, but instead compares prices for 57 goods and services bought by households in which middle managers live. It’s designed to compare living costs for people moving to another city.

Among other cities in the state, living costs in Boulder were 23.3 percent above the national average last year, while Denver and Grand Junction were 5 percent and 1 percent above the average, respectively.

Costs in Fort Collins were 4.7 percent below the national average, while Greeley was 2.4 percent below the average and Pueblo was 12.9 percent below the average.

Wayne Heilman  The Gazette

No responses yet

Feb 17 2009

Homecoming tearful, joyous for 3rd BCT soldiers

Published by admin under News

They battled for 15 months in Baghdad and Mosul, losing 15 soldiers in some of the fiercest fighting since the invasion of Iraq.

Tuesday afternoon, many in the ranks of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team had tears in their eyes as they greeted loved ones during a Fort Carson homecoming ceremony. The brigade is out of danger now with all but 250 of them back in Colorado.

“It’s like Santa Claus, Valentine’s and the Super Bowl all rolled into one,” Col. John Hort shouted with an emotion-choked voice.

Hort, the brigade’s commander, is slimmer than he was when the brigade left for war just after Thanksgiving, 2007. He led his brigade through the battle of Sadr City last spring, an intense two-month fight that left 700 Shiite militiamen dead.

Now, for the first time since 2003, Iraqis can walk through the eastern Baghdad neighborhood in relative safety.

Iraqi troops have taken control of the area after American forces wrested it from insurgents. Markets have reopened and factories have resumed work, an important step in an area where unemployment was at 50 percent or more last year.

For Hort, though, that was yesterday.

“It’s like a big weight got lifted off my shoulders,” he said.

Lt. Col. Chris Johnson was just as happy.

His 3rd Brigade battalion spent their 15 months in Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, and what was the last bastion of al-Qaida violence in that country. Violence there has dropped 75 percent since the battalion took control, Johnson said.

“You wouldn’t recognize it,” he said.

The time in Iraq took its toll, though on soldiers and their families.

Hort said the next two weeks will be dedicated to watching soldiers identified as “at-risk” for trouble on their return to ensure they get the help they need to reintegrate with their families and society.

“We’re very focused on our high-risk soldiers,” Hort said.

Hort said that will include learning from other units that have returned and had to deal with crime, family problems and war-caused mental illnesses.

But the colonel has other priorities, too.

Like other soldiers in the brigade he gets four days off before he has to return to Fort Carson to start the medical checks, paperwork and training in how to readjust to life in America .

“It’s going to be four days of drinking Corona and playing basketball with my kids,” he said.
-
By Tom Roeder The Gazette

No responses yet

Feb 16 2009

Townhomes less than $800.00 a month

On the Colorado Springs Real Estate front if you thought about getting into a townhome we can get you into a nice home for less than $800.00 a month and possibly even much less.

Also for first time home buyers you can get an $8000.00 tax credit on your 2009 taxes. What this means to you is if you owe the IRS $1000.00 you going to get back $7000.00 on your 2009 tax returns If you haven’t owned a home for the past three years you can qualify. This is free money you don’t have to pay back.

For more information you can give me a call Ken Asher (719) 930-7817 or just complete the contact form.

Comments Off

Jan 31 2009

Big year for mountain post, city

Published by admin under News

This is the year of the boom at Fort Carson, where thousands of soldiers are expected to relocate this summer.

The post’s population of troops will climb to 24,600 from 18,100 in 2008, and officials there will continue building at a furious pace to house the soldiers with $580 million in construction planned this year. The number of military family members in town will grow from 45,600 in 2008 to 62,000 in 2009, according to Army estimates.

But that won’t mean a sudden economic rebound in Colorado Springs. With ongoing and planned deployments expected to keep 10,000 soldiers overseas at any time, the new troops will put the post’s economic impact at about the same level it was before the 2003 Iraq invasion.

The growth will bring stability and is breeding optimism, business leaders say - two things that have been in short supply amid economic turmoil that has rocked the Pikes Peak region and the nation.

The Pentagon first announced growth plans for Fort Carson in 2004, then pledged additional troops in 2005 and 2007, making the post one of the biggest in the nation, on paper.

But the Iraq war delayed the arrival of most of the additional troops, and wartime deployments have kept thousands of Colorado Springs troops overseas.

“We’ve had a couple of false starts simply because of Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Rich Walker, whose firm, First Properties, is developing the Mesa Ridge shopping center in Fountain.

Most of the soldiers headed to Fort Carson are now serving in Iraq with the headquarters of the 4th Infantry Division and the division’s 1st Brigade Combat team. They’re scheduled to start returning to Fort Hood, Texas this month, where they’ll prepare for the move here.

Col. Gene Smith, Fort Carson’s garrison commander, said the soldiers who are part of the units moving to Colorado will be given the option of staying in Texas and going elsewhere within the Army.

So while the bulk of the soldiers coming to Fort Carson will move from Fort Hood, hundreds, if not thousands, of others will come from Army posts worldwide.

And while troops could start moving here as early as April, commanders expect most to arrive this summer.

Smith said soldiers, most of whom have families, will want to limit school disruptions for their children.

Meanwhile, there will be deployments from the post. The 3,600-soldier 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division leaves in May for a year in Afghanistan.

The 3,800-soldier 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division left last fall for a year in Iraq and won’t be home until late this year.

The post is also getting thousands of soldiers back from war soon. The 3,800-soldier 3rd Brigade Combat Team will come home in February from 15 months of combat in Baghdad and Mosul.

U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, a Colorado Springs Republican, said the local economy will be bolstered by growth despite the pace of deployments. He said, unlike earlier in the war when military families often left Colorado during deployments, spouses and families of soldiers are increasingly likely to stay in the Pikes Peak region.

And it looks more likely that deployments will slow as the Iraq war winds down.

If peace takes hold, businesses here are in for a payday, said Brian Binn, president of military affairs for the Greater Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce.

By 2013, the post will be home to another 5,000 soldiers on top of the ones coming this year, with a planned additional brigade that’s being built to grow the Army. If they’re all in town at once, that would push the number of soldiers in Colorado Springs to levels not seen since the Vietnam War.

But with peace still in the distant future, Binn said he is happy with what the community has.

“You will see one of the highest populations of soldiers at Fort Carson this summer that you have seen in four or five years,” Binn said. “We will feel the impact of the arrival of the additional soldiers and their families, even with the reluctance of consumers to spend.”

Businesses had been salivating over that military money for years.

“So often when we talk to the businesses around here, they ask us where is the growth at Fort Carson that we’ve been told about?” said Lisa Cochrun, economic development director for the city of Fountain. “Businesses expected to see greater increases than we’ve had, but we have to recognize that there is a war going on and troops have been deployed.”

Cochrun said that she expects traffic and business in the Fountain Valley to increase this summer and that she is already seeing more interest in Fountain from retailers, restaurants, medical offices and entertainment and recreation businesses in anticipation.

The economic gains from additional troops at Fort Carson won’t be enough to pull the local economy out of recession, but likely will prevent an even deeper downturn, said

Fred Crowley, senior economist for the Southern Colorado Economic Forum.

He estimated the arrival of the troops will reduce local job losses by between 2,500 to 5,000.

If deployments slow, Crowley said soldiers are more likely to make big-ticket purchases such as cars and homes. He estimated deployments in the past five years have trimmed local vehicle sales by 10 percent and inflated the local apartment vacancy rate by 2 or 3 percentage points.

Preparation for growth has also buffered the region from the worst of the nation’s economic ills. While homebuilders have shed workers during the housing bust, Fort Carson has put out the help wanted sign.

The $500 million annual building budget to house soldiers has brought an average of 2,000 construction workers daily to the post. That is expected to last through 2010, said Maj. Mark Himes, who oversees building at the post.

In Fountain-Fort Carson School District 8, which has 6,500 students, officials will make room for 3,000 more students in the next five years at a time when state education money for districts with military families is expected to be cut.

The district will have to cut $1 million from this year’s budget because the state is expected to suspend supplemental payments made to districts with large military populations. District 8 had received more than half of the state’s $1.8 million kitty for such schools.

The $1 million already had been built into the budget, and so district officials will have to make cuts before the end of the year, according to Dave Roudebush, assistant superintendent for academic support services.

The district, however, receive a big shot in the arm in November, when voters passed a mill levy override, which will bring in $700,000 in local money. Passage guaranteed federal money of about $70 million and will be used for construction costs, increasing teacher salaries and expanding school curriculum.

Already, a new elementary school is on the architectural drawing board and is expected to open in August 2010. It will be 87,000 square feet, and will comfortably hold 750 kindergarten through fifth-graders, Roudebush said.

THE GAZETTE

Gazette staff writer Carol McGraw contributed to this report.

No responses yet

Jan 29 2009

Thousands reunite after Fort Carson unit’s tough tour in Iraq

Published by admin under News

THE GAZETTE

Another long wait is ending for thousands of families.

Two hundred soldiers from Fort Carson’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team came home to cheering crowds Wednesday morning, and they’ll be followed in coming weeks by 3,500 of their comrades who are wrapping up a grueling 15-month deployment in Iraq.

The soldiers marched into the gymnasium where their loved ones waited to the strains of “The Angry American,” the same Toby Keith tune the post has used to welcome home returning troops since the beginning of the Iraq war.

“It’s a miracle,” Wendy Farrington said minutes before getting the first glimpse of her husband, Staff Sgt. Christopher Farrington. “I felt this day would never come.”

Soldiers, tired from a daylong transcontinental flight, were just as jubilant.

“It’s indescribable,” said Sgt. 1st Class Roy Crow.

The brigade is finishing its third Iraq deployment since the 2003 invasion. This time, its soldiers served in Baghdad and Mosul and endured months of combat with insurgents before a relative calm settled in last summer. Fighting included an epic struggle with Shiite radicals in Baghdad’s Sadr City slum last spring, possibly the fiercest battle of the nearly six-year war.

“It was the hardest deployment I’ve ever done,” said three-tour veteran 1st Sgt. David
Gonzalez.

While not trying to dampen the joy of reunited families, officials at the post are also working to deal with problems they know lie ahead.

The three deployments mean that many of the brigade’s soldiers have hardly seen their families since 2003. And the Army has learned during the war that some soldiers affected by its brutality come home suffering from mental illnesses that often remain hidden.

Every one of the brigade’s soldiers will undergo a mandatory course on dealing with the task of rebuilding family ties, and spouses are being offered classes on how war can affect a soldier’s mind.

Nate Nugin, who oversees the training program for Army Community Services, said getting spouses involved is key to connecting soldiers and families with the help they need to adjust to life away from war.

“They are critical,” Nugin said. “We make it clear to them how important they are in the process.”

So far, spouses of the brigade’s soldiers have shown a strong interest, Nugin said.
Leaders are hoping soldiers are receptive, too.

Keenly aware of past problems with soldiers who have returned from Iraq only to struggle with readjustment at home, the brass is emphasizing that troops who need help will get it. Leaders are also trying to eliminate the stigma they admit was associated with troops who seek counseling for mental illness or family problems.

“The message coming down is there will be no repercussions or reprisals for soldiers seeking help,” Nugin said.

But the worries are in the future. For reunited families, it’s time for celebration.

And with the Iraq war winding down, it may be time to look forward to a long stay at home.

“I hope so,” said Shelby Obermuller, whose husband, Sgt. 1st Class Jason Obermuller, came home from Baghdad. “We know we at least have a year.”

No responses yet

Jan 26 2009

Real Estate

If you find yourself with PCS orders to Fort Carson and you need to find a home we can help you with your home search. Simply just tell us what you are looking for and we’ll take care of the rest. We’ll set you up with your own personal web site to view homes for sale like the homes below. When homes come on the market that match your criteria they will be sent directly to you.  Because of your service to our country we offer a cash  bonus program to be used towards your home purchase. We also have some great Colorado Springs and Fort Carson information we would like to send you.

homelist


Home Request

If you would like to get set up with your personal web site to view homes for sale complete the form or feel free to give us a call toll free 866-930-7817. We’ll be glad to answer any questions you may have.

Name:
Email:
Phone:
address:
City:
State:
Zip Code:
City or Area:
Square Footage if know:
Min. Bedrooms:
Min Bath:
Price Range:
When do you need a home?
2 + 6 =
Any other information you would like to tell us:

Comments Off

Next »