Home Depot, the world’s largest improvement retailer, today reported fourth quarter sales of $14,600,000,000. That’s more than MacBride Office Furniture did for the entire year of 2009! Comparable same store sales for the US were down just 1.1% in the fourth quarter, a sharp improvement from earlier quarter results. Total sales for the year were $66,200,000,000, a decline of 7.2% from 2008.

More importantly, the company issued a forecast for 2010 sales growth of 2.5%. They backed up that optimistic projection by planning to open six new stores and raising the dividend 5%.

The recovery is underway. It will likely be a slower than normal upturn, but things are looking up.