AURORA, Colo. -- If it's not a housing rebound it may be just the assist the reeling real estate industry needs to bounce back: interest in existing homes appears to be up.

Angela Van Zanten, who lives in southeast Aurora, wants to move back to family roots in Oklahoma. She and her husband put their average three bedroom, three bathroom home on South Himalaya Court and Reservoir Road on the market this week, with realistic expectations.

"We really expected to sit here for a couple of months before we got this much interest," Van Zanten said. "On Wednesday, when it went on the market, we had five showings and yesterday we had four. And we've already got two to three lined up this afternoon. I'm kind of overwhelmed because I wasn’t expecting it that soon ... It's gone a lot faster than we thought."

One agent brought a potential buyer through Friday and said the Van Zantens did all the right things: improved the home, removed the clutter and made the house look extremely clean and open.

Brokers are cautiously optimistic that several factors are at work: the traditionally strong spring season, lower interest rates, and lower prices. These three combined may signal the beginning of the end.

"We have seen increased activity of late," said Thomas De Herrera, a broker/owner of Metro Brokers Inc. "We won't know if it's an interest-driven head fake until we get a little bit further along."

De Herrera points to the 2007 Parade of Homes site, Southshore, as a barometer of the broader real estate market.

There is limited building still under way, but there are plenty of prime, empty lots as well in Southshore, De Herrera said.

De Herrera said prices there are still too high but a slight drop could change the entire landscape quickly.

"It'll come back though. It always does. I sold 14 homes in 1991. I sold 114 homes in 1992," De Herrera said.

He'll take one sale at this point with three potential buyers looking now.

"I don't know that I had three buyers from August through December," De Herrera said of the interest last year.

Buyers can find deals, too.

Donna Patton hopes to be a new resident in the Southshore area. She and her husband plan to rent their current home and upgrade to a four-bedroom, four-bath home with a view of the Aurora reservoir for 20 percent off the original asking price.

“Yes, as a matter of fact we have renters looking at our house today," Patton said. "I can’t wait. We close in a month."

Patton said talk of first-time home buyer credits under the federal stimulus plan was not a factor, but another number was.

"Interest rates. Yeah, we're getting a great interest rate ... 5.2," Patton said.

Several real estate veterans say buyer interest is up now and especially high for homes in the $250,000 range and below, as long as they're comparably priced with other homes in the same neighborhood.