A recent Microsoft Money blogger Louis Navellier outlined 7 reasons housing is doomed:

Low housing starts... foreclosures hit record numbers... expensive homes still not selling... banks not giving loans... property prices falling... housing permits drop... homebuyer credit expiring

The responses by commenters ranged from "at last, someone outside of real estate is telling us the real truth" to "one that I believe is the only response that will help the situation:

I bet that if the media did an experiment and just decided to write positive things about the housing market for 4 or 5 weeks people would start to believe that houses are a good investment and the market would begin to heal itself...so much of this is an emotional reaction and pack mentality....try it please....

If real estate agents, analysts, journalists, builders, lenders, and the general public write off housing, how will anyone better off?  People need homes, lenders need customers.  There's always roadblocks, things could always be better.  But, as have been proved time and time again in the past couple years, creative agents have been successful at matching up buyers with homes.