Realtors are just salespeople. It's the *job* of salespeople to utter whatever words will make a sale. On the other hand, listening to such people is little more than a crutch for the indecisive.
The people who were *wrong*, however, were the doom and gloomers of "inflation."
Inflation means things cost more, like houses. In contrast, when housing prices decline, that's *deflation*. That means that each Dollar is worth more, making prices fall.
Deflation is a very bad thing, which is why people don't like to see home prices decline.
Actually, housing became so disconnected from fundamentals that it had no choice but to correct (inflation or no). Sure, housing is deflating, but I think the overall economy (that includes the global economy) is experiencing ever higher levels of inflation, as evidenced by traditional inflation indicators such as gold.
PS I think we're headed for stagflation...and then years later, deflation.