Rental / DSCR in Colorado Springs

It sets a rent floor that is published a year ahead and repriced annually. Colorado Springs is a single Military Housing Area (MHA CO046) covering Fort Carson, Peterson Space Force Base, Schriever Space Force Base, Cheyenne Mountain and the Air Force Academy, so a soldier and an airman of the same rank draw the identical allowance. Two secondary sources citing the Defense Department's 2026 tables put the 2026 with-dependents rate at $2,433 for an E-6 and $2,595 for an O-3; the primary DoD rate file could not be fetched directly for this research, so verify the current figure on the official housing calculator before you lock a rent assumption. Metro single-family rent of $2,383 a month (Zillow, June 2026) already sits between the E-6 and E-7 with-dependents bands, and the Fort Carson gate communities of Security-Widefield and Fountain rent lower still, squarely inside the junior-enlisted band. That is the DSCR case here: a tenant base with a federally funded, published, appeal-proof housing budget.

Because the school district and any metro district on the parcel, not the county, set most of the bill. El Paso County, Colorado and the City of Colorado Springs together levy under 10 mills (6.857 county, about 3 city for 2025), but the school district alone runs from 29.765 mills in Fountain/Fort Carson District 8 to 57.682 mills in Widefield District 3, a swing of nearly 28 mills on otherwise similar houses. Newer subdivisions, especially east of Powers Boulevard, typically sit inside a Title 32 metro district that finances streets, water and parks with its own mill levy: inside city limits the cap is 30 mills for debt service plus 10 for operations, though the City has approved exceedances in some cases, and districts in unincorporated El Paso County, Colorado are not bound by that city cap at all. A metro district at the cap can roughly double the base stack. Pull the parcel's actual mill levy from the El Paso County, Colorado Treasurer before you underwrite a DSCR pro forma; do not use a metro or county average, especially on anything built in the last fifteen years.

The Fort Carson gate communities south of downtown show the strongest rent-to-value math. As of June 2026 (Zillow), Security-Widefield rents at $2,308 against a $381,251 typical value works out to about a 7.3% gross yield, and Fountain is about 6.5% ($2,125 on $394,468); that is our arithmetic on published index levels, not a cap rate, and it nets out no expenses. Colorado Springs proper blends toward 4.6% and the north-end Monument submarket toward 3.4%, an appreciation-and-tenant-quality play rather than a cash-flow one. The backdrop favors DSCR generally right now: metro single-family rent was up 1.6% year over year in June 2026 while values were down 1.7%, so debt service coverage is improving on the rent side even as purchase prices soften.

It depends entirely on which side of the city line the property sits on. Inside the City of Colorado Springs, a non-owner-occupied short-term rental permit has not been issued in single-family zoning since December 26, 2019, so a DSCR investor buying in an R-1 neighborhood inside city limits cannot add one, and an existing listing's permit does not transfer to a buyer at closing. In unincorporated El Paso County, Colorado, the County states directly that it has no codified short-term rental ordinance and no permit requirement for the principal structure. Ask city or county before underwriting short-term income on any Colorado Springs DSCR file; Woodland Park and Manitou Springs run their own separate rules that were not verified for this research.

Later than in most counties, if you buy in the reassessment window. El Paso County, Colorado revalues real property in odd-numbered years, mails Notices of Valuation shortly after May 1, and runs the formal protest window from May 1 to June 8. El Paso County, Colorado also uses the state's extended procedure, so the Assessor's Notice of Determination on protests does not go out until August 15, months later than counties on the standard calendar. An investor closing a DSCR deal in June still has that year's protest outcome open into late summer, which can move the tax line in your pro forma after rent and rate are already locked. Colorado's residential property is taxed under two separate rates, one for school levies and one for everything else, on top of whatever mill levy the parcel actually carries; talk to your CPA about the appeal timeline before you finalize a long-hold underwrite.

Yes, and it is a federal right you should underwrite rather than ignore. Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, 50 U.S.C. section 3955, a tenant with permanent-change-of-station or deployment orders of 90 days or more can end a residential lease on written notice plus a copy of orders, with no early-termination charge. Every military-tenant lease around Fort Carson, Peterson Space Force Base, Schriever Space Force Base and the Air Force Academy carries that built-in break option, so a DSCR pro forma here should plan for turnover, not assume a full lease term. The offsetting fact is depth of demand: Fort Carson alone reports 57,144 soldiers and family members living off-post, and the region hosts roughly 45,000 active-duty, Guard and Reserve personnel across five installations, so a vacated unit in the gate communities typically has another qualified tenant behind it.

Plan on 20% plus closing costs. We go up to 80% LTV on a DSCR file, so on a $380,000 Security-Widefield purchase that is $304,000 from us and $76,000 from you (380,000 x 80% = 304,000). The property also has to carry itself, with DSCR from 0.75. Gate-community rent around $2,308 a month against that basis is the reason this part of Colorado Springs pencils. Subject to underwriting.

Yes, but it carries less weight than at a bank. DSCR files start at a 640 credit score, and we do run credit, though the property does the qualifying: DSCR from 0.75, no W-2s and no tax returns. A published, federally funded housing allowance makes the rent side of a Colorado Springs file unusually steady, but it does not replace the score minimum. There is no hard credit pull to get started. Subject to underwriting.

$100K to $3M. Every submarket tracked for this metro sits inside that band, from Stratmoor at $330,486 up to Monument at $761,332 as of June 2026, so a single Colorado Springs door clears the floor and stays well under the cap. Terms run 30-year fixed or a 5, 7 or 10-year ARM. Subject to underwriting.

Prepay structures on our DSCR program are flexible. They are set at underwriting, so if you expect a short hold, say so up front and we size the prepay to match instead of you finding it at payoff. That matters here. Under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, a tenant with permanent-change-of-station or 90-day deployment orders can end the lease on written notice, so turnover is built into a military-tenant file. Subject to underwriting.