Homes in Colorado

Small Homes in Colorado home builders that survived last year's record low in housing starts now face a new challenge for 1990: cultivating new sources of money. As traditional sources of homes in Colorado financing have dried up, the small, tenacious, even profitable group of some homes in Colorado 200 builders who make their livings selling five to 50 single-family homes annually at $ 150,000 or more have found themselves searching long and hard to find new lenders.

"There's no question that it's difficult to find money for homes in Colorado," said Collier, chairman of First Federal Savings Bank. "We're looking at deals all the time, but we are really pretty conservative about choosing who we're going to lend to." Hit by the lack of financing, the homes in Colorado Homebuilders Association is planning a series of seminars starting in March to teach members how to cultivate new lenders and how to hold onto the ones they currently do business with.

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Homes in Colorado

"Small- and medium-size builders are working the hardest to get homes in Colorado construction loans right now," said Brandt, president of the Homebuilders Association of Metropolitan Denver of homes in Colorado, a custom home builder. "We're telling homes in Colorado builders to concentrate on banks and S&Ls that are well capitalized and to spread themselves among many lenders," Brandt added. "If one of your homes in Colorado lenders gets in trouble then you've just lost 50 percent of your borrowing capacity and it's very difficult to replace." Two factors have separated home builders from their traditional sources of money: stringent new savings and loan capital requirements, and lending limits that have drastically reduced the amount of money S&Ls can lend to builders.

Because there are fewer homes in Colorado S&Ls and because those left can lend less money, banks represent the primary source of money still available to builders. But rock-bottom real estate prices and a housing glut -- primarily in condominiums and townhomes -- have made most bankers leery of real estate-related loans. Kowalski said his bank is one of about four in the metro area that are knowledgeable and willing homes in Colorado construction lenders. "I don't understand why more banks don't do them," Kowalski said. Many banks don't understand the construction business, he said, and others believe economic conditions preclude making money on loans to builders.

Homes in Colorado: Inspired by February 26, 1990 Denver Business Journal Article.

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