Everyone knows that times are tough in the housing and real estate markets.  Question, does the fact that "everyone knows" things are bad create a self fulfilling prophecy?  Are we making things worse than they should be?  If enough people keep saying something is a certain way it has a way of becoming reality.  Everywhere you turn in the media, internet or the local coffee shop you hear the same doom and gloom, the nightly news especially loves to tell the tale as bleakly and negatively as possible, bad news sells.

The guys on Wall Street call this market sentiment; it actually gets measured with consumers as "consumer confidence".  As you might have guessed they are at all time lows.

Now don't go off and say "yeah right we simply thought ourselves into our current mess" very real things happened that lead us here.  I'm not going to reiterate what brought us here as it has been beat to death.  What I am going to talk about what is being done now to fix this mess.

• Federal Reserve has lowered interest rates aggressively and more cuts are on the way.  Mortgage rates are at or near their all time low.  Yes, the Fed could have moved faster but it is what it is......the Fed is getting back on track.
  
  
• Tax rebate to stimulate consumer spending, check, our government acted quickly and the money is on the way.  This may not have any direct impact in housing or real estate, but it could raise consumer confidence, which will help everyone in the long run.
  
  
• Banks and mortgage companies must continue to tighten up their loan processes and eliminate poor products like interest only loans and sub-prime products.  Both need to accept their responsibility for creating some of this mess.  Is government oversight needed here to keep them on the right path or build consumer confidence?
  
  
• Florida must find answers to the home insurance costs and rising property taxes.  The latest property tax amendment is a good start but more must be done.
  
  
• Finally, everyone needs to know we have hit bottom, the recovery has stated and things are only going to get better, lets see if we can make this a self fulfilling prophecy......