Are we really in a "down market"???

Hi Everyone. I was reading the local paper this morning and it continues to SHOUT that things are awful in the Real Estate Industry... woe is me!! the sky is falling!! we're in a recession!! Banks are hurting!! I am surprised that they don't insert some graphics of black storm clouds above these articles. Geez... I'm 62 years old and just getting into the Real Estate field (2 yrs as an agent in CA)... however my wife & 6 kids and I moved over 12 times while I was in corporate America and I ended up on both sides of the Real Estate equation... sometimes we made lots of money and other times we didn't...  I rarely lost money over those 30 years, though, because the Real Estate market ALWAYS ALWAYS COMES BACK.  Funny..I read in one article this morning that some economics professor at a local college predicted that housing prices will stabilize in 2009 but won't start rising again until at least 2011 or beyond..   What's he smoking?? He needs to do a little more research on the cycles of Real Estate ...especially in California.  I decided months ago to simply ignore all the bad news.  I remember a little story about a guy selling hot dogs on the street in NYC (Manhattan) and he never read the newspapers to find out that he was in a recession. He continued to have double digit increases in his business throughout the "recession" period.  I'm taking the same approach...  what slowdown in housing?  There's PLENTY of buyers out there and PLENTY of sellers... there's a pent up demand in California ... I think I'm going to have an incredibly good Spring and have record sales.  Good luck everyone.  Regards,  John