Editor’s note: The property at 4980 Broadmoor Bluffs Drive is not in the landslide susceptibility zone, contrary to a map produced earlier by The Gazette.

The number of homes damaged by landslides in Colorado Springs continues to grow while their property values plummet, potentially leaving dozens of homeowners with little recourse beyond a buyout.

The El Paso County Assessor’s Office has confirmed landslide damage at 46 homes on the city’s southwest side, mostly on Zodiac and Broadmoor Bluffs drives. At least 20 homeowners have told city officials they will accept a buyout, and the city is poised to apply for millions of dollars in federal aid to purchase as many homes as it can.

Nearly all of the homes will lose at least half of their value, said Assessor Steve Schleiker, who expects to add more damaged properties to his list.

“It’s bad,” Schleiker said Monday. “It’s sad when you are sitting there talking to the property owners. For some of them, it’s their retirement. It’s their only asset. Some of the homes are complete losses.”

The affected neighborhoods are among the city’s most picturesque, where some home values range from half a million to a million dollars. The 2015 median value of the impacted homes was $336,683 – almost $100,000 more than the median value of a home sold in Colorado Springs in May.

Nearly all of the homes sit on or adjacent to a landslide risk area mapped by the Colorado Geological Survey, which has spent decades studying landslides in Colorado Springs.

Landslide problems have long plagued the westside of Colorado Springs, but rarely on this scale. In 1996 the city passed its first version of the geological hazards ordinance, which requires geological studies to be done on certain properties platted after that year. Heavy spring rains in April 1999 triggered landslides and federal buyouts for 27 homes, many in the same neighborhoods now having problems.

Record-breaking rains in May caused slopes to slide, crack and buckle in the Skyway and Broadmoor Bluffs neighborhoods. But the geological hazards ordinance could do nothing to help more than half of the damaged homes, which were built decades before the ordinance was passed.

William Farkas is one of the homeowners in the Skyway neighborhood, where most of the mid-century homes like his were built on top of an unknown landslide problem. Farkas’ circa-1955 ranch home, at 1010 Zodiac Drive, is one of two that have been condemned by the city. The home he renovated is now unlivable – with walls and windows snapped and earth in the basement.

Knowledge of the danger would have changed everything, Farkas said.

“I’d never have spent all this money,” he said.

While Farkas’ home and that of one of his neighbors on Constellation Drive illustrate the most dramatic effects of the landslides, damage is everywhere. Assessor’s office employees have seen caved-in basements, doors that won’t close and sheet rock at 30- to 45-degree angles.

“It’s unbelievable what we’ve seen,” Schleiker said.

The assessor’s office has inspected all but nine of the 46 homes known to have landslide damage. Of those, Schleiker estimates 80 percent will lose at least half their value, based on the office’s categorization of the impacted homes: destroyed, major damage, minor damage and affected. Any homes with minor damage and above will have a significant loss in value, he said.

“With the destroyed home there is no value,” Schleiker said. “Homes with major damage, and with the cost to cure, it’s a 75 percent reduction in value. Homes with minor damage, we’re still looking at a 50 percent reduction.”

He estimated that homes in the “affected” category would see a 10 percent loss in value. He thinks more homes will be added to the list as homeowners near the impacted homes learn more about the problem.

“There are probably folks out there thinking ‘I have a crack in my wall and I don’t know what’s causing it,'” Schleiker said.

For anyone with landslide damage, help is scant. As a rule, insurance companies don’t cover landslide damage, said Carole Walker, the executive director of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association.

“Typically when you have an issue like that, it’s also an issue of where they developed,” Walker said. “Often times it goes back to a question of the development being there.”

As with the 1999 landslides, the only help for homeowners comes in the form of a federal grant. The city intends to apply for a slice of a federal Hazard Mitigation Grant, which will cover 75 percent of the home’s pre-damaged value and the cost to tear it down. But the remaining 25 percent of the grant will have to be covered by local agencies – either the city or the homeowner. The city estimates that it will need at least $14 million to buy out 20 homes, although it has yet to decide how 25 percent of that will be covered.

The buyouts are voluntary, and there will likely not be enough grant money to offer every interested homeowner a buyout.

While it could be years before the city finalizes the buyouts, Farkas has been grappling with his mortgage company, which still requires him to make his payments. As he juggles rent for a new place with a mortgage for a worthless home, Farkas said he feels he has lost everything.

“It’s disheartening because nobody wants to help you,” he said.

But aside from the buyout, Farkas said little could have been done to prevent the situation.

“I’ve got an upbeat attitude about it because, I mean, who I am I going to yell at?” he said. “The dirt?”

William Farkas spent hundreds of thousands of dollars remodeling his home, at 1010 Zodiac Drive, before it had to be condemned due to a landslide. Farkas’ home is one of two that has been condemned, but one of 46 homes in the area with landslide damage. Farkas is on a list of homeowners who are hoping their homes will be bought out by the city with the help of a federal grant. Thursday, January 28, 2016. Photo by Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette

JERILEE BENNETT, THE GAZETTE

William Farkas spent hundreds of thousands of dollars remodeling his home, at 1010 Zodiac Drive, before it had to be condemned due to a landslide. Farkas’ home is one of two that has been condemned, but one of 46 homes in the area with landslide damage. Farkas is on a list of homeowners who are hoping their homes will be bought out by the city with the help of a federal grant. Thursday, January 28, 2016. Photo by Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette

JERILEE BENNETT, THE GAZETTE

William Farkas spent hundreds of thousands of dollars remodeling his home, at 1010 Zodiac Drive, before it had to be condemned due to a landslide. Farkas’ home is one of two that has been condemned, but one of 46 homes in the area with landslide damage. Farkas is on a list of homeowners who are hoping their homes will be bought out by the city with the help of a federal grant. Thursday, January 28, 2016. Photo by Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette

JERILEE BENNETT, THE GAZETTE