Well after about six months, the Larimer County residential market has finally shed its "soft market" persona in the eyes of a number of lenders! While Larimer County was under a soft market classification, mortgage loans were subject to a 5% financing reduction, requiring at least a 10% down payment. In the past months, several lenders were now able to provide programs with 95% financing on conventional with as little as 5% down.  

This is just one of many facts that proves not believe everything you hear on the news! Another one came from my companies June publication of the Insider.  One article compared the return on investment (ROI) between residential property and the major stock indexes since the start of the decade. The chart below shows the returns posted between January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2008, for the three leading stock indexes, and compares those results to gains achieved by residential real estate in Northern Colorado's three largest communities.

In dollar terms, if you invested $100,000 on January 1, 2000 your investment would be worth the following today:

For the Stock Market

• Dow Jones Industrial $80,200
• S&P 500 $64,800
• NASDAQ: $40,100

For the Real Estate Market

• Greeley homes: $114,000
• Loveland homes: $133,000
• Fort Collins homes: $137,000.