It is pretty slow here in Central Ohio.  Several companies have reduced staffs in the courthouse and in the escrow departments.  I don't believe that this spring will give us an answer as to who will be around for the long haul.  I'd guess this will be more like what we saw in 1977-79 and again in the mid-eighties.  Two or three years of reduced volume and a slow weeding out of the weaker players.
Real Estate has always been cyclical, and this is not so different from what we have seen in the past.  The only things that are different from the abstracting perspective this time is the increased use of on line records for the easy stuff, and overseas outsoursing.  It is also different in that we have so much more of the financing being packaged for sale, rather than held by the original lenders.
I certainly don't know where we are headed in the next couple of years, but for myself, I am prepared for two to four years of shrinking income in title.  It really does not matter so much, if we all wanted a steady income, we would be working for someone else.