Be happy, people - a consensus is building that the worst is about behind us.  A roundup of some economic data and experts’ opinions makes it hard not to reach the conclusion that the recession is, in fact, over.

Here’s one happy little detail: the Dow is honing in on 10,000 again, having closed up about 20 points at 9,885.80 this afternoon.  What’s more, as we noted last week, it’s doing this even as it’s almost time for companies’ third quarter reports, which shows a certain level of optimism.

Then there’s a survey of 44 professional forecasters that the National Association for Business Economics put out to consider.  Reuters reports, “About two-thirds of respondents believed house prices will reach a bottom this year.”

Finally, the key discovery of the survey is as follows: “80 percent of the respondents believed the economy was growing again after four straight quarters of declines.”

So hopefully this recovery will continue as the experts predicted.  While we’re thankful that things never slid into depression territory, it’d still be great to put this recession behind us.