HONOLULU -- Economic experts gathered Wednesday to give their picture of how Hawaii is doing right now during this recession and they said it could be some time before the islands recover.

The topics ranged from real estate to tourism to retail.

Economist Paul Brewbaker said forecasts show the economy is no longer getting worse and appears to be stabilizing.

"The green shoots of spring have been replaced by the lawn mower of summer. We had some upside in the stock market, some interesting signs that the economy was approaching stabilization. Stabilization does have to happen before recovery," Brewbaker said.

Brewbaker said the recovery will likely not be noticeable to most people until next year and 2011. Job growth will take years, he said.

For now, Hawaii will continue to see job losses and a lack of job creation, Brewbaker said.

Harvey Shapiro, the research economist for the Honolulu Board of Realtors, said even though Hawaii has the highest home prices in the country and sales on Oahu have been going down there are some positive signs.

Prices may have bottomed out because of shrinking inventory on Oahu, Shapiro said.

"Ours has been declining for months. So that is keeping our prices stable -- that the fact that our supply is limited," Shapiro said.

The good news for buyers is that financing costs are low and incomes are up, economists said.

If you can afford to buy, do not wait since it is a long-term investment and prices always go up, Shapiro said. As for sellers, Shapiro said make sure your home is appropriately priced.