income? If there are two working adults in a household and each are making average salary than we are talking $70000-80000 average. At that household income you can still afford a $300000 home so I don't think those numbers are as lopsided as they may seem. This is not New York and San Francisco where you have to go back to before 1990 to find homes for less than $300,000.

Supply and demand is the biggest factor. If the prices get so high that people stop buying, whether because there is a price break or because recession leads to less confidence and ability to provide a mortgage payment that only means that prices will come down until they meet demand. This is not 2007 where a huge part of demand is inflated by belief that equity will keep growing indefinitely leading to people taking risks with their purchases for more wealth. Right now you have real people who are currently filling apartments and rentals trying to get into homes. If prices ever drop until they meet demand they will only drop far enough to where people will feel confident about buying again. Personally I don't think that drop is very far unless the tech industry falls apart, which could happen.