[snootchiebootchies]

I'm personally still skeptical that this is a sign of a recovery. I'm certainly no expert but just looking at the numbers, I see quite a bit of volatility in the winter volume numbers. And I certainly would not try to determine a trend using winter volume numbers based on the the law of small numbers. If you look back to 2010, there was a 30% year-over-year increase in detached housing sales from January to March. However, by the end of the year, annual numbers for 2010 ended up 16% lower than in 2009. We should know by May if what we're seeing is truly a recovery. But I personally don't believe we are seeing a recovery -- things are still pretty tough everywhere. Lots of companies are still just getting by and I'm not seeing much hiring of long term full-time positions. I'm also not seeing much in terms of raises and bonuses. And yet, debt levels in Alberta continue to grow. The only assets I see any growth are in stock portfolios as the TSX and the Dow have moved up 1000 and 1700 points, respectively, since Trump's election. So the investor class is doing much better these days but that is not enough to sustain a long term recovery in housing.