Stephen Lasher reads all the dire economic forecasts declaring this recession the most worrisome since the Great Depression. But life doesn't seem so bad to Lasher. In fact, his horizons have never looked brighter.

Last year, the 33-year-old Columbia Business School grad landed a great job at media company NBC Universal. Now his spending money stretches further than before, thanks to retail store sales. Last month, he closed on his first home: a one-bedroom waterfront condo in a complex with a gym, pool and doorman.

"I am feeling good," Lasher says. "The housing prices were out of control before. . . . Now I was not only able to get a good price, but I was also able to get a mortgage interest rate well below what I thought would have been possible."