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Colorado - Thu. 10/15/26 |
A Free Business Publication from Alpine Bank
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HIGH PRICES, EVEN HIGHER MORTGAGE RATES RESULT IN HOME SALES SLUMP
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Home sales fell sharply in September in Colorado, and all indications are they will fall even more as prices remain relatively high and mortgage rates continue to rise above 7 percent. The Colorado Association of Realtors reports that single-family or detached home sales fell 14.9 percent statewide according to the September report, while pending contracts, a marker of future activity, fell 10.8 percent. Declines were more pronounced in the Denver metro region, where sales fell 18.7 percent and pending contracts were down 12.9 percent. Detached home sales rose in only 14 of the state’s 64 counties, were flat in seven and down in the remaining 43 counties. Much of the weakness is tied to higher mortgage rates, which have reduced affordability.
Year-to-date, through September, sales were down 1.7 percent across the state. Many of the sales closing in September were initiated in July and August, before 30-year mortgage rates spiked to the 7.5 percent range. That makes even bigger drops in activity likely in the months ahead. When rates rise sharply, home prices often fall in response. But detached home prices are down only 0.9 percent over the past year to $575,000. Median condo and townhome prices are softer, down by 7.1 percent over the past year to $395,000. Grand and Adams counties experienced the biggest percentage declines in attached home closings at 39.1 percent and 38.6 percent. Pitkin, Summit, Garfield and Boulder counties experienced condo sales declines in the 29 percent to 35 percent range.
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BLM MOVES TO THE NEXT STAGE FOR DECEMBER LEASING ON THE ROAN PLATEAU
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On Friday, Oct. 9, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced it plans to place about 5,000 acres of land on the Roan Plateau outside of Rifle in its December lease auction of a total of 126,440 acres to be held Dec. 8, 2026. On Friday, the 30-day public protest period began and will close Nov. 9, 2026. The proposal to drill on acres atop and around the 73,600-acre Roan Plateau has received strong pushback from a variety of groups across the state, with both Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Colorado Dept. of Natural Resources asking the BLM to defer the inclusion of areas on the Roan that overlap with big game habitat. The Garfield County commissioners have twice supported the proposed release of Roan land, approving letters to the BLM in September and July asking the agency to move forward with its plans to drill there. For complete information on the proposed lease, go to eplanning.blm.gov.
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DENVER MOTORISTS, A NEW REPORTING SYSTEM AVAILABLE FOR MINOR ACCIDENTS
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On Thursday, the Denver Police Dept. is launching its new online Driver Exchange Platform that will allow drivers to exchange information after a minor fender bender and avoid waiting around for an officer to arrive. The new platform should be used whenever an accident doesn’t result in injuries, especially when the city declares weather-related “crash alerts.” The program will free up officers to respond to more urgent calls, which “makes the city safer.” Officers will continue to respond if a vehicle is immobile, if a driver involved doesn’t have a license or registration, or if drug or alcohol impairment contributed to the crash.
Here is how the Driver Exchange program works:
- After a minor collision, one of the drivers involved should call 911 or the non-emergency number, which is 720-913-2000.
- If the drivers involved agree, call takers will text a link to their mobile devices so they can start an online report.
- Each driver enters information on the secure site and can have identifying information, such as an address and phone number, redacted for privacy.
- Photos of the crash or vehicle damage are uploaded after the information is entered.
- Drivers will receive a link with the completed driver exchange report, which can be downloaded and shared with their insurance carriers.
- Drivers will then be free to leave the crash scene.
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THE NEW “LOOKS & CHANGES” AT THE STATE’S SKI RESORTS FOR 2026-27
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With snow arriving, skiers and snowboarders are looking to opening days of Colorado’s ski areas. For the 2026-27 season there are some new lifts, territory and upgrades at the state’s resorts. Aspen, Purgatory and Powderhorn Resort have new lift infrastructure coming online this season.
- Aspen plans to open the Nell Bell chairlift, a high-speed, detachable quad that replaced the Little Nell and Bell Mountain chairlifts. The new chairlift will start at Gondola Plaza and cut the time to the top of Bell Mountain from 21 minutes, the cumulative time spent on the two old chairlifts, to eight minutes.
- At Purgatory, the new Colorado Couloir chairlift will take skiers and riders from the Gelande parking area directly to the top of the front side, accessing terrain that previously required a hike. The new ski lift will provide access to roughly 40 acres and five new skiing trails including some of the “steepest, most demanding expert terrain” at the resort.
- Powderhorn Mountain Resort on Grand Mesa outside of Grand Junction, has a new high-speed detachable quad lift, the Wild West Express, to replace its historic 1972 West End double chair. It will basically cut the ride to the West end in half.
- Some resorts will have new avalanche and snowmaking systems, with Breckenridge installing a new remote Wyssen Avalanche Control system on Peak 7. The new technology, which has previously been used by the Colorado Dept. of Transportation but not by ski resorts in the state, will allow snow safety teams to perform avalanche mitigation in above-treeline terrain remotely, rather than having to hike in, which can be time consuming.
- Winter Park Resort has continued a multi-year project to rebuild its snowmaking apparatus with more automated and mobile equipment, with a new system on Lower Hughes.
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PITKIN COUNTY, WITH BIG CAPITAL EXPENSE, LOOKING AT LARGEST BUDGET EVER IN 2027
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The Pitkin Board of County Commissioners are looking at a $450 million budget for 2027, which will be the largest ever in the history of the county, as the county enters a period of “generational capital investment.” The 2027 budget will be 44 percent higher than the current $312 million budget, which is the highest to date. The increase is driven almost entirely by the Aspen/Pitkin County Airport Modernization Project. The county plans to spend $186 million next year rebuilding the runway and preparing for a new terminal. The current estimated price tag for the airport project is $677 million. The airport isn’t the only big-ticket project bolstering this year’s budget, either. The county is also budgeting about $29 million “for construction of the scalehouse campus” at the Pitkin County Solid Waste Center “as part of a broader landfill expansion and modernization effort.”
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THE EASTERN PACIFIC SETS RECORD FOR HURRICANE DAYS, WITH MORE COMING
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Hurricane Simon continued moving slowly off Mexico's Pacific coast as a Category 1 storm, bringing heavy rain to Nayarit and Sinaloa states, where authorities remained on alert for rising rivers and flooding. Over the weekend, the hurricane brought heavy rain to the southern state of Guerrero. While the eye of the hurricane remained offshore, its outer bands slammed communities this week between the Sierra Madre and the Pacific Ocean near Puerto Vallarta. Simon, on Tuesday morning, brought to 68.5 the number of hurricane days in the eastern Pacific, topping the old record of 68.25 hurricane days.
As Simon remains a hurricane, Tropical Storm Trudy, as of early Wednesday morning, was located about 405 miles south of Acapulco, Mexico, with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph with higher gusts. The hurricane center forecasts "rapid intensification" for Trudy, with it reaching hurricane status by Wednesday evening and it is projected to be a major hurricane, possibly Category 4 by Friday.
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CPI REPORT INDICATES INFLATION REMAINED HIGH IN SEPTEMBER
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The Bureau of Labor Statistics Wednesday released its consumer price index report for September, which showed consumer prices rose a seasonally adjusted 0.6 percent for the month, putting the 12-month rate at 3.7 percent. Economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal projected a 3.6 percent increase. The so-called core CPI, which does not include volatile food and energy costs, rose 0.3 percent for the month and was up 2.6 percent on an annual basis, compared to respective estimates for 0.2 percent and 2.5 percent. Gasoline prices soared 9.1 percent, accounting for about half the gain in headline CPI, according to the BLS. Over the past year, gas has posted a 34.2 percent gain while fuel oil has roared higher by 74.2 percent.
Nonetheless, the inflation rate remained higher than the target rate of the Federal Reserve. Inflation as measured by CPI has surpassed the Fed’s 2 percent benchmark since March 2021. The gauge had been trending lower at the start of 2026 but then spiked following the strikes the U.S. and Israel launched against Iran. Over the past few months, the year-over-year trend has moderated but still has held well above target. This is the last CPI reading before the Federal Open Market Committee next meets on Oct. 27-28.
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HUGE CYBERATTACK ON FREEZERS TAKES DOWN FRENCH SUPERMARKETS
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Overnight on the weekend of Oct. 11-12, a large-scale cyberattack targeting refrigeration systems across France, causing significant losses for some 300 stores in all of the country's major supermarket groups including: Carrefour, Monoprix, Intermarche and Cooperative U. In addition to raising the temperature of the defrosting system in freezers and cold-storage rooms to 50°C (122 degrees Fahrenheit), the hackers extended the defrost cycle from one hour to eight hours so that alarms would go off later. The attack was centered on refrigeration units that used software developed by the Danish firm Danfoss. Danfoss issued a statement saying that most of the affected equipment was "legacy" products which "no longer receive software or security updates." It said its AK-SM800 and AK-SC355 fridge regulator systems were notably affected, with a version of the former using "outdated firmware."
It added that it had long advised supermarkets to update from those models. Danfoss gave no figures on how many systems were affected. There was no immediate estimate of industry-wide losses, but Intermarche CEO Thierry Cotillard said the "unprecedented" attack would represent losses amounting to "tens of millions of euros nationwide in a single day."
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DESPITE AIR STRIKES, COCAINE TRAFFIC REMAINS AT ALL-TIME HIGH
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For the last 13 months, U.S. aircraft and drones have mounted a massive bombing campaign against cocaine-smuggling speedboats off the coast of South America. According to Trump Administration officials in the past year, American military drones and aircraft have destroyed more than 70 vessels, killing nearly 240 crew members and depriving criminal groups of $1.5 billion in cocaine. Yet drug boats in large numbers are still leaving Colombia, which produces 70 percent of the world’s cocaine. Traffickers are bolting metal modules packed with cocaine onto the hulls of freighters preparing to leave Buenaventura, Colombia's largest Pacific port. Deep in the Amazon, smugglers have shifted shipments east, hiding drugs on boats moving through the rain forest’s vast river network. Traffickers have responded by spreading shipments across cargo containers, freighters, fishing boats, and submarine-like vessels.
Guyana and Suriname have emerged as new platforms for cocaine-laden boats, U.S. and European officials say, while Venezuela remains a critical launchpad. The result is record supplies of cocaine still arrive in the U.S., Europe and as far away as Australia every day, cheaper and purer than they’ve been in decades, said law-enforcement officials across four continents. The scale of trade is evident on the streets of drug-consuming countries, where supply is outstripping demand to the point that prices are plunging. In Miami, wholesale cocaine sold for about $16,500 a kilogram this summer, well below the historical $22,000 to $25,000 range. Similarly, European prices have plummeted from $45,000 to as low as $16,000 a kilogram in some cities. In both markets, purity remains remarkably high, sometimes hitting 98 percent in Europe, because dealers no longer need to stretch supplies with adulterants.
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WORLD’S OLDEST SHIPWRECK FOUND OFF THE COAST OF TURKEY
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Archaeologists from the Mediterranean Archaeology Association led an expedition which discovered the oldest shipwreck ever off the coast of Turkey. The wreck, close to Kekova Island in Antalya, Turkey, was believed to be a ship about 10 meters long and dated between 4,400 and 4,700 years old, the early Bronze Age, about the same time that the Great Pyramid was being built. None of the ship’s wooden structure survived, but there were three large stone anchors and more than 30 ceramic storage pots, called amphorae. With radiocarbon dating impossible because of no wood, dating came from analyzing the shape and style of the amphorae. Archaeologists say the decoration technique of the amphorae provides “definite” dating to the Early Bronze Age. The ship is believed to have started its voyage along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean and was taking goods to the ancient city of Troy or to the Minoan people in Crete.
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MARKET UPDATE - 10/14/2026 Close
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(Courtesy of Alpine Bank Wealth Management*)
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Canadian dollar (per U.S. dollar)
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Mexican peso (per U.S. dollar)
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30-year fixed mortgage rate (Freddie Mac 10/08/2026)
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*Not FDIC insured. May lose value. Not guaranteed by the bank.
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Alpine Bank is an independent, employee-owned organization with headquarters in Glenwood Springs and banking offices across Colorado's Western Slope, mountains and Front Range. Alpine Bank serves customers with retail, business, wealth management*, mortgage and electronic banking services. Learn more at alpinebank.com.
*Alpine Bank Wealth Management services are not FDIC insured, may lose value and are not guaranteed by the bank.
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