If you're a glass-is-half-full kind of homeowner, this news is for you: Despite a housing market that's still clearly struggling (sales of existing homes in Denver dropped by 28 percent in October compared with one year earlier), the average home sale price is up. A home in the Denver area now sells for an average of more than $261,750—an increase of 9.6 percent from this time last year, according to Metrolist Inc. data cited by the Denver Business Journal.

If you're still worried about finding good deals in this market, look no further than the UFO-shaped structure lurking over I-70 in Genesee, just west of Denver--the house from the 1973 Woody Allen film, Sleeper. The home was sold at a foreclosure auction because its then-owner, Denver-area businessman Michael Dunahay, had yet to pay some $2.7 million on it. He wanted to keep the house and hoped to outbid the lender. But the 7,000-square-foot abode has now been snapped up by Trans Western Realty for a cool $1.53 million, notes CBS4. Several years ago, software mogul John Huggins, who owned the house, put it on the market for $10 million. But it didn't sell until Dunahay showed up with a promise to pay $3.43 million for it. Talk about depreciation.