The only reason colorado real estate sales are up is that people are taking advantage of real estate foreclosures. The Colorado house next door was foreclosed and sold for $87,000 - easily worth $275,000 and so the bank "forgave" almost 200k. I don't think this is necessarily progress. I have a hard time believe that any bank would forgive almost $200K on a $275K loan. Especially when here in Colorado real estate foreclosure world (Breckenridge being one of the highest) That its harder than hell to get them to come down 5-10K. Unless that Colorado property was destroyed by the previous owners, had copper wiring/pipe stolen etc in the home. In that case it was not really worth $275K. If it went for $87K in a neighborhood of $275K homes and you are right next door, your home price just tanked.