Is Briargate a good place to buy for the Air Force Academy?

Briargate is the big master-planned neighborhood on the north end of Colorado Springs, laid out in the 1980s between I-25 and Powers Boulevard just south of the Air Force Academy's grounds, and Northgate is what has been built north and east of it since: Flying Horse, Cordera, Wolf Ranch and the subdivisions along Northgate Boulevard up to the Academy's north gate. Together they are the Academy's side of town, and the price band says so.

Who lives here and why

Academy faculty, staff and cadre, officers and senior NCOs at Peterson and Schriever who chose District 20 and accepted the drive, and a large civilian and retiree population that came for the schools and the view. Briargate is two-story tract on modest lots with thirty-year-old trees, a strong set of elementary schools, and the lower prices of the two. Northgate and its named communities are newer and larger — 2000s through today, semi-custom in Flying Horse around its golf course, tract and new construction in Cordera and Wolf Ranch — with an HOA and a metro district on nearly every street and a price to match. It is not a Fort Carson neighborhood: a soldier at Carson living here is committing to thirty-five to fifty minutes each way on I-25, and most do not. The Fort Carson guide sets the north end against the rest of the metro by installation.

The commute

The Academy's north gate is five to fifteen minutes by I-25 or Northgate Boulevard, and the south gate ten to twenty by Academy Boulevard, which is the whole case. Peterson is twenty-five to thirty-five minutes down Powers, a daily drive many north-side Peterson households make. Fort Carson is thirty-five to fifty minutes on I-25, Schriever thirty-five to forty-five, and downtown twenty to twenty-five. I-25 north of the city and Northgate Boulevard carry the first snow of the season and the last, and the Academy's gates change hours and access rules more than the other installations' do; confirm the current gate before you count on a route.

Housing stock and what the appraiser sees

The Minimum Property Requirements are mostly quiet here. Briargate's 1980s–2000s stock brings roofs that are hail-aged and often on their second or third replacement — the appraiser notes condition and remaining life, and a recent roof is a selling point for a reason — plus the Front Range constants of expansive clay under slabs, which shows as cracking and clears with an engineer's letter, and radon, which is worth a test. The newer communities bring the paperwork of new construction: a builder with a VA builder ID, the warranty, and incentives tied to the builder's lender, which the new-construction page walks through. Flying Horse and the forested edge toward Black Forest add a wildfire-insurance question on some lots; get the quote when you go under contract.

What decides the payment is the tax bill. Flying Horse, Cordera, Wolf Ranch and most of Northgate sit in metropolitan districts, special taxing districts under the Colorado Special District Act that repaid the developer's infrastructure with a mill levy on the property tax, and older Briargate largely does not. At this price band the levy is a bigger number than it is in Fountain, and it runs through escrow and your qualifying ratios. Pull the district and its levy from the El Paso County assessor in the first showing, and compare two houses by the payment, not the list price.

The loan angle

Prices here are high enough that entitlement matters, which is the thing to settle before you look. With full entitlement there is no VA loan limit and no down payment at any price the appraisal supports. A buyer with a VA loan still open at the last station is in the second-tier calculation, and at Northgate and Flying Horse prices a down payment can appear where it would not in Fountain; the entitlement calculator shows the number by county. The metro-district levy and the HOA belong in the payment before you decide what the allowance carries, and the BAH-to-payment calculator takes both. Colorado's disabled-veteran exemption — half of the first tier of value for 100% permanent-and-total or individual-unemployability ratings — is on the Colorado benefits page, and it is worth proportionally less on a higher-value home. Houses here rent well to the next Academy or Peterson rotation; the renting-out page covers the decision at the next PCS.

Next

• See BAH for Fort Carson →
• Compare nearby neighborhoods →

Around Fort Carson

• Buying Near Fort Carson: The Colorado Springs VA Loan Guide
• Colorado Veteran Home Buying Benefits
• The PCS Home Buying Guide