DENVER -- Housing figures released Thursday showed increases in single family residential and condominium sales for October -- compared to the same time period last year.

The monthly report from Metrolist, Inc. reported residential homes sold in October rose 12.2 percent over last year at this time. Condo sales were up 7.8 percent over a year ago.

"Now all we need is some consumer confidence and I believe we're off to the races," said KC Butler, a top-selling realtor with ReMax in Denver.

Butler said consumers have likely held back -- waiting for issues on Wall Street to be worked out and uncertainty leading up to the general election to pass.

"I fully expect in the next 60 days to see some confidence come back, and a little bit of a bounce," Butler said, referring to the number of homes being sold.

It was encouraging news for Sue Gagain, whose Wheat Ridge home has sat on the market for more than two years ago.

Gagain has had three contracts on her $180,000 home, but no one’s been able to close the deal.

"They back out at the last minute; financially they find out they can't do it," Gagain said. “I’m not giving up.”

The Metrolist data also showed homes selling last month averaged a little over $250,000 -- down 13 percent over last year. The average sold price for a condo in October was, $164,686, according to the research.

Butler said homes moving the most are under $300,000 and include foreclosure properties that are attractive to investors.

“Investors are going into market place and buying product they can rent for more than a mortgage payment," Butler said.

Butler added that he’s confident the Denver housing market is poised to recover quicker than other parts of the country because of slow, but increasing sales, improving home values and declining foreclosures.

”All the factors come back to, we are going to be one of the leading cities out of this real estate slump," Butler said, adding that the housing market could make impressive strides in 2009.

“Two months ago, Boston and Denver were named the only two cities where home prices where rising,” Butler added.

Butler said higher-end homes and luxury residence sales are hurting the most currently.

Adams County is leading the Denver metro area with the number of homes being absorbed, Butler said.

Absorption refers to the percentage of homes going under contract related to overall available inventory.

Butler said Adams County had a 29.7 percent absorption rate of residential single family homes over the past 12 months.

Arapahoe County was next highest with a 22.1 percent absorption. The average among Denver’s six county metro area was 21.5 percent. The lowest country score within that area was Broomfield with 17.4 percent absorption.

Butler said areas with lower absorption rates typically feature higher priced homes.

How long have homes been sitting on the market? Butler said on average, homes in the Denver metro area have spent 99 days on the market. Metrolist research showed days on the market time was, on average, a few days less.

New home sales, by contrast, within Metropolitan Denver continued to be slow during the Third Quarter 2008, with new home sales down 28.7 percent from the previous quarter and down 46.9 percent from the same period a year ago, according to data compiled by Hanley Wood Market Intelligence.

The Hanley Wood research also indicated condominiums have been the hardest hit segment of the new housing market, with sales down 51.1 percent over the past year.