Mike "Q" Quaintance, President One of our Real Estate Welcome Center Volunteers recently provided me with a printout of the Cape Coral housing sales activity by the month and we have more than doubled the previous sales low of the past year plus. In January 08 we had 152 home sales, in February we had about 200 home sales, in March about 299 home sales and in April almost 388 home sales. The April 08 numbers represent the highest volume since before January 2006 (240). If this trend continues a couple of more months it could signal a significant sign that we are climbing out of the real estate slowdown and beginning to work off the inventory. It could also signal that buyers are confident that we are at the bottom of the housing devaluation and it is time to buy. Another interesting number is the decline of residential listings in Cape Coral from the high of 4,987 in November 2006 to 2,726 in April of 2008. As the number of listing diminishes this should signal growth for our residential building, which should then trigger more commercial activity. While it is not my intent to give false hope I do believe that as we see these encouraging signs that it is our responsibility to share these bits of good news with you so that you can make appropriate business decisions. I believe that most of us were surprised at the impact that the real estate and building industries has on our economy, this information could be the first concrete information pointing to an improving market, which will trickle through our whole economy. This information makes it ever so clear the need for us to expand and diversify our business base to sell goods and services outside of our local market to infuse outside dollars that feed our economic engine. If you would like to share other positive indicators like this with me I will be happy to share them with the membership.