At a recent panel discussion held at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, it was difficult to disagree with Senior Economist Paul Willen when he said, "The technical term for what’s going on right now is that the economy sucks."

But the unanimity of opinion was among the lone bright spots at the Greater Boston Association of Realtors’ event that offered much to lament, but little to help reassure.

Willen’s frank assessment was largely echoed by fellow panelists Paul Bishop, vice president of research at the National Association of Realtors (NAR); Christopher Herbert, research director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard; and Barry Bluestone, director of the Dukakis Center at Northeastern University. Frank Nothaft, chief economist at Freddie Mac, gave the keynote speech at the event.

Though each presenter tackled different aspects of the housing sector, they agreed that the state and the country face a "long slog" back toward a healthy market.

The overall economy will likely continue to grow slowly over the next year, and the Fed will almost certainly keep rates low, helping keep mortgage affordability "sky high," Nothaft said.

But the main factor holding back sales this year – fearful consumers reluctant to commit to big-ticket purchases – will persist through 2012, he suggested. Nothaft forecasted that sales will grow only 1 percent to 4 percent next year.

Tight underwriting will also continue to put downward pressure on home sales, whether or not the proposed 20 percent down standards for qualified residential mortgages are adopted.

Bishop presented new figures from NAR’s annual survey of buyers and sellers showing that since the expiration of the first-time homebuyer’s tax credit last year, the average age of buyers in Massachusetts has shot up from 38 to 42. First-time buyers are finding it tougher to qualify, with 17 percent listing "saving for a down payment" and 15 percent listing "getting a mortgage" as their most difficult hurdles in obtaining a home, while 39 percent found the mortgage qualification process more difficult than expected.

Current owners are relying more on savings and less on equity to make down payments on their next purchase, and are staying in their old homes for longer before buying again, Bishop said.

But Herbert said there may be some hope on the horizon in the long term. The most important reasons people want to buy have to do with quality of life, rather than pure wealth building, and the desire for ownership has remained strong throughout the crisis, he said.

The industry will have to figure out better ways to encourage more homeownership among minorities, however, as they will form an increasing proportion of the potential buyer pool in decades to come, he said.

Though excess inventory is plaguing the current market and likely to remain an issue over the next few years, the dearth of new construction and long-term demographic trends will inspire more new household formation.

Right now, high unemployment, especially among the young, is keeping roughly 700,000 people per year from striking out on their own, according to Herbert. But as the economy continues to grow, "that 700,000 represent an enormous amount of pent-up demand," he said. "All those people are going to be moving out of their parent’s basements."

But first, the housing market will have to work through the current backlog of problem loans. Of loans currently in foreclosure, "two-thirds haven’t made a payment in a year, and 40 percent haven’t made a payment in two years, so that’s a pretty big hole to try to dig out of," said Herbert.

Bluestone urged policymakers to do more to help fill in that hole, saying the downturn in housing is a huge part of what’s keeping the economy from a more robust recovery.

"Fixing the housing market is absolutely critical to the recovery of the national economy," he said, provoking a round of spontaneous applause from the auditorium full of Realtors.