Is Colorado finally climbing out of the foreclosure pit?

New foreclosure filings in Colorado are at an eight-month low and the number of foreclosed properties being sold at auction is down nearly 22 percent from this time last year, according to a report released today by the Colorado Division of Housing.

"The past several months have certainly been positive, with repeated drops in both foreclosure filings and completed foreclosures," says Ryan McMaken, a spokesman for the Division of Housing. "But the job market weakened in the last quarter of 2010, and with the end of the homebuyer tax credit, we're still waiting to see what happens this spring."

So while it ain't exactly time to break out the champagne and caviar, it could be time to splurge on some beef jerky and Miller High Life.

Other signs that the Colorado housing market might be on the rebound: yesterday's announcement that a Boulder-based land developer is moving forward on a long-stalled plan to build 2,700 housing units in the (once) tiny town of Erie. What's another 10,000 residents, anyway?

Real estate insiders are also celebrating the news that the LoDo office tower 1800 Larimer Street has been sold to Dallas-based Invesco Real Estate for an estimated $213 million, which is apparently a hefty price per-square-foot for our little provincial hamlet.

Read all about disgraced developer Eric Osborn and a far more controversial deal downtown, One Lincoln Park, in Jared Jacang Maher's story originally published March 19, 2009.