So the filter is no longer market sentiment, but the actual financial barrier entry.Josh Dorkin has been hammering cash flow as the main criteria, if not the only criteria, based on his own experiences in CA.

That reality kind of proves the OP original sentiment, their are some slimy investors/realtors out there, that will absolutely sell you some land locked swamp parcel and be totally OK with it because they did all the legal, legal, legal....let alone, all the other questionable "legal" things that are  more ethical grey area than the swamp land example.

I suggest you read Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments. 

Greatly agree with other sentiments that your PM is playing it safe / lazy. 

I'm all for being a realist and I always appreciate education but negative sentiments irk me dearly and you sir are very irksome!!

Etc etc.But nothing is exact or for sure. consumer sentiment can affect the market  as well .. it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.. and then again its that time of year sales are always slow .. what will really tell in my mind is what happens to sales in Jan feb Mar apr.  

In general I agree with the "if you have to ask, you should probably have an agent" sentiment.    

I second @Alexander Felice sentiment here. 

That is not the sentiment I saw in 2008.

The current measures and sentiments in the US are not serious at all compared to what the measurement China or Korea are taking.