thoughts about a recession

The more that you fear a recession, the more that it will affect you.  A recession is the public reaction to a "perceived" problem.  In truth, if everyone ignored the news of a recession, it wouldn't happen.  There isn't any less money.  The job market is really good.  So what is the problem??  The TV News has to make everything a big deal in order to sell advertising.  We, at Airless Spray Center, are dependant on the construction industry.  The TV news claims that the sudden drop of "new housing starts" is the main problem.  In actuality, there are now more houses that need maintenance than ever before.  So the jobs have just swung from new house construction to repair and maintenance.  And all of the new houses built in the last 10 year boom were "tract homes" and need work on them to make up for the minimum paint jobs, etc that they were sold with.  So there is more work needed now than ever.
Most of the lasting problem is with the houses that were purchased by people that couldn't afford them.  The teaser interest rates allowed people to qualify for houses that they had no business buying.  These owners have done no improvements and most have let the property run down as they couldn't even afford the mortgage.  So they are making the housing market dip back down to affordable prices.  This lets new buyers, that couldn't afford the inflated prices, now start looking at these homes.  And they will be solid buyers.  They will hire contractors to revive these neglected homes and the market will gradually come back.
The TV news makes it sound like this has never happened before.  I am well below retirement age and this is the second time that I've seen it happen.  The trick to making this cycle work for you is to NOT buy a house when prices are climbing beyond what you know the house is worth.  Buy NOW when you know that the houses will increase within the next 5 years.  Look at it this way.  You wouldn't buy a $80.00 jacket if it was being hyped and priced at $120.00.  But you WOULD buy that same jacket if it was priced at $75.00   If you watch the housing cycle, you will not be surprised or ever take much of a loss, if any.  Be smart, Be cautious, Be informed and TURN OFF THE TV NEWS !!