Housing Price Conflicting Information

I’m not sure there’s been a time in recent memory where there has been so much conflicting information for the average consumer.  Are house prices rising or falling?  Are there more jobs or fewer jobs?  Is the economy growing or shrinking?  Is America recovering or disintegrating?  Every Economist, Realtor, Mortgage Broker, Lawyer, Welder, Teacher, all have an opinion on where things are going.  Today in the news it was forecasted that the strength of the economy was overrated, and that it will fizzle out over the next several months and the recovery is going to take some time.  In effect it appears to me that it’s like a car crash where a pedestrian is smoked by a car, ends up in the hospital and the Doctor initially says “Ahhh, it’s just a flesh wound” but soon realizes that all the victims organs were crushed.  The recovery might be longer than initially stated!