1. Buyers are cutting to the chase, and not quitting their day jobs to look for a house. Instead, they're making a wise, bold move right out of the chute, and getting in touch with a market-savvy agent/broker to get the "job" done right. Why? Most likely because time is money (and taking time off of a day job is a pretty tough proposition right now), knowledge and experience in your local, ever-changing market is key, and the realization is that in most cases it's the seller who pays the agent anyway. Not to mention, our skills and training are utilized in the long run, since the majority of home buyers do not write up their own purchase and sale agreements and other written contracts.
2. Contrary to the latest "homebuyer-humor" heard lately at the Spud, there are more buyers hitting the streets with agents than one might think, even after (unfortunately) carefully watching "the news" every night. The joke? Extracted recently from the air around a handful of local real estate industry (not agents) gurus: "Hahaha; yep, buyers will buy, just as soon as the interest rates go back up!" The moral of this story: push back from the tube, call your broker and tell her you want to see listings via email (saving gas!), make a list, check it twice, and head out for some of the best deals we'll ever see. --There are more buyers than we've seen in recent months; they're just more cautious, have a lot of inventory to shop, and obviously moving at a slower buyer pace than we were used to in recent years.
3. The recent real estate vocabulary is morphing, however slowly. 
From "psychological recession," and "mortgage meltdown," we'll eventually move to "buyer-boom." From "short sale," to "REO, with the BPO complete." FYI, these terms now officially show up as searchable categories or criteria on the Intermountain MLS, and if these boxes are not marked, you can still interpret some of the listings that may not want to come right out and declare that it is a distressed property by words like, "corporate addendum required," with, quite often, many warnings about how to prove how qualified you are financially show up in the remarks section of the listing. Either way, the "bank owned" term may change a little bit, but the prediction is that the concept's here to stay for awhile. Perhaps until the buyer-boom kicks-in to start absorbing some of the REO, we'll just have to wait and see what the term "bank owned" changes to. --Any input from the Rain?
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