Homes for sale in Colorado Springs

Inside the city, water comes from Colorado Springs Utilities, and most of it is not local groundwater. The county’s Water Master Plan describes the utility bringing renewable water from the upper Arkansas River and from rivers west of the Continental Divide, stored in Pueblo Reservoir among others. The Southern Delivery System, completed in 2016, pipes it from Pueblo Reservoir to a treatment plant near Highway 24 and Marksheffel Road.

That is the real difference between a city address and most of the acreage around it. The same plan says that, apart from Colorado Springs Utilities and its partners, the county’s water providers rely on Denver Basin and designated basin groundwater for 85 percent of their supply. The El Paso County acreage guide explains what that means for a property on a well.

Unincorporated county runs right up to the city’s edge. Cimarron Hills on the east side is a good example: the Cherokee Metropolitan District, which supplies its water and sewer, sits outside the city limits, adjacent to the city, and serves some 17,945 customers. Further out, the listing feed files Black Forest homes under Colorado Springs too.

Which side of the line a house is on decides who zones it, who maintains the road and who supplies the water. The line also moves. The city is replacing its 2006 Annexation Plan with a new framework called AnnexCOS, and its Municipal Code requires annexed properties to take city electric and gas service and requires spare utility capacity before land can be annexed at all.

The county’s Water Master Plan expects most of the city’s suburban growth on Banning Lewis Ranch, over 24,000 acres that form most of the city’s eastern boundary. Much of that building is inside metropolitan districts, which carry their own levy on the tax bill.

The rules for those districts changed recently. On August 9, 2022 the City Council adopted a revised Special District Policy and new model service plans, which apply to new or amended district plans. Older districts generally stay on the previous model plans, most of which date from 2006. The metro district guide covers what to read before you buy inside one.

Moves into this county often run on orders rather than on a decision, which changes the shape of the transaction more than the shape of the search. The timeline is fixed, the trip to look is short or does not happen, and the sale on the other end may be in another state.

Two things are worth setting up early. A lender who has closed VA loans recently and can speak to the appraisal requirements, and a clear decision about whether you are buying or renting for the first year. Both are cheaper to settle before you are under contract than during.

This page does not give advice about entitlements, which are not a real estate broker’s to interpret. What Belinda can do is run a purchase on a fixed date with somebody who cannot be here for it, which is a logistics problem rather than a mystery.