We’ve all wondered about it: Just how bad can this current housing slump get?

Usually when I ask real estate professionals this question, they say it’s already gotten as bad as it’ll get. They predict the start of a turnaround in the residential real estate market in 2009, and a full-fledged recovery beginning in 2010.

That seems a long way off. But at least there’s that light at the end of the tunnel.

But … what if these experts are wrong? What if we haven’t seen the worst of the market yet? What if things are going to get a lot worse before they get better?

If you like grim news, then this story in Time Magazine is for you. The story, by Janet Morrissey poses the thought that the country’s mortgage crisis — record foreclosures, so far — is only beginning, and that the repercussions of it will impact nearly every segment of the nation’s economy.

It’s chilling stuff. And important. My advice? Read the story. And prepare for the worst. In cases like these, it seems, the pessimists are usually right.

Sometimes real estate news is so surreal it makes you shake your head. The great clothes-line battle is a perfect example.

Time Magazine recently ran a story, which you can read here, on the battle over the right to dry. In other words, some residents in housing developments governed by homeowners associations want to dry their clothes the old-fashioned way, by hanging them on outside clotheslines to bask in the sun. It’s more environmentally responsible to eliminate the energy usage of a dryer.

Some homeowners associations, though, forbid homeowners from drying clothes outside. It’s too visually unpleasing, they say.

This is leading to a movement — though I’m not quite sure how large of a movement — to enact legislation protecting homeowners’ rights to dry their clothes on outdoor clotheslines.

The Time Magazine story quotes one homeowner who’s received at least one complaint about his clothesline from a neighbor. The owner has chosen to ignore the complaint. The president of the homeowners association is quoted as saying he isn’t taking any action, yet. But if he does receive more complaints, he says, he might have to.

Does this all sound ridiculous? Maybe just a bit. But if I was choosing sides, I’d side with the clothesline supporters. It’s easy to say your an environmentalist or “green,” but it’s harder to actually put those principles into practice. And if you can’t stand the sight of your neighbor’s clothesline, stay away from the window.