Is Stetson Hills a good place to buy for Peterson Space Force Base?

Stetson Hills and Cimarron Hills sit side by side on the east side of Colorado Springs, north and south of Platte Avenue along Powers Boulevard, with Peterson Space Force Base and the airport on their eastern edge. Stetson Hills is the 1990s and 2000s subdivision; Cimarron Hills is the 1960s and 1970s one. Between them they are the east side's answer for anyone whose badge gets them through Peterson's gate.

Who lives here and why

Peterson and Schriever families, mostly, with a share of Carson households who chose the east side for a spouse's job along Powers or for District 49. Stetson Hills is two-story tract homes on small lots with HOAs, built from the early 1990s through the 2010s, with the retail and the big-box corridor on Powers a few minutes away; it is the metro's plain, well-kept, middle-price family subdivision. Cimarron Hills, across Platte to the south, is unincorporated El Paso County: ranches and split-levels on larger lots, mature trees, fewer rules, lower prices, and a lot of long-term rentals owned by people who were stationed at Peterson once. The newer tracts east of Marksheffel Road are a third product, closer to Banning Lewis Ranch in character and in tax bill. The Fort Carson guide sets the east side against the rest of the metro by installation.

The commute

Peterson's main gate is five to fifteen minutes from nearly anywhere in either neighborhood, which is the case for living here. Schriever is twenty-five to thirty-five minutes east on Highway 94. Fort Carson is twenty-five to thirty-five minutes down Powers to Fontaine or Highway 21, a real daily drive but a common one for a household with one at each post. The Air Force Academy is twenty-five to thirty-five minutes up Powers, and downtown is fifteen to twenty. What the drive times leave out is the sky: the airport's and Peterson's runways point over the south edge of Cimarron Hills and the southeast corner of Stetson Hills, and Colorado's seller disclosure asks about it for a reason. Visit a house on a weekday afternoon, not a Sunday morning.

Housing stock and what the appraiser sees

In Stetson Hills the Minimum Property Requirements are usually quiet: 1990s–2010s tract with the Front Range basics — hail-aged roofs that draw a condition on age and remaining life, expansive clay that shows as slab and foundation cracking and clears with an engineer's letter, and radon worth a test. The HOA's rules and dues go into the file, not the appraisal. In Cimarron Hills the list is the older-stock list: roofs at end of life, furnaces and water heaters past theirs, electrical panels that draw a condition when they are unsafe, and the lead-based paint rule on anything built before 1978, which is most of it — chipping or peeling paint has to be corrected before closing. Former rentals carry deferred maintenance; get an inspection and use the appraisal page to see how conditions get negotiated. Newer tracts east of Marksheffel bring the Colorado-specific item: a metropolitan district whose mill levy runs through the tax bill and your qualifying ratios. Stetson Hills itself was largely built before that model took hold, which is part of why its tax bills are lower than a new build's at the same price; confirm the district on any specific house with the El Paso County assessor before you compare.

The loan angle

Stetson Hills prices sit in the middle of the metro, which is where a full-entitlement VA loan — no down payment, no loan limit — still carries a family house on a mid-grade allowance with room for the HOA; the BAH-to-payment calculator with the real tax and HOA figures shows the margin. Cimarron Hills is the lower-priced way in, with repairs negotiated to the seller or handled through the VA renovation option in the fixer-upper answer. Peterson is a repeat-assignment base and so is Schriever; a buyer with a VA loan still open at the last station is in the second-tier calculation, which at these prices usually clears without a down payment. Houses here rent to the next Peterson rotation without a gap — the renting-out page is the decision at the next PCS. Colorado's disabled-veteran exemption is on the Colorado benefits page.

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