Region’s housing market takes necessary breather

New home construction and existing home sales are down in most areas of Northern Colorado compared with the past two years. But real estate agents and home builders are still expecting a banner year.

“Six weeks ago, I would have told you we would exceed last year by a lot. But it slowed down in September,´ said Jeff Demaske, owner of J & J Construction of Northern Colorado and Journey Homes. “We’re still probably going to do $100 million in sales this year. I can hardly call that a bad year.”

Demaske’s companies, which build homes in six locations from Johnstown…