"...the economy will always come back, so there's no real reason to sell at a loss. Just sit tight and when the market comes back ..." Well, good for you, Rocky.  

Everyone's situation is different. Case in point: in the late summer of 1999, I had lots of reasons to "sell at a loss." BC had been in recession for a year, I owned my own company and I figured (correctly, as it turned out) it'd be about 5 years before "the market came back."  I was 53 at the time.  After 20 years as "my own boss" I was exhausted. Wait another five years, hanging by my fingertips? (I'd already cut the cable on the TV so I could fill the gas tank one more time at the end of the month.)

I pulled the pin.  And the mini-"boom" during the last 6 months of operation didn't fool me. Sold  the house at a $20,000 loss, sold everything in it and drove down to Mexico. 1.5 years later, I was back...in a new Canadian locale, a new career, a new wife ...and new life.  Never EVER regretted the decisions I made.