The mean that I think of is the mean value for the ratio between housing prices and incomes. If real incomes rise, you expect housing prices to rise at similar rates, and the converse is true.
Because of inflation, you’re not going to see a return to nominal 1998 prices. Also, according to the data I saw, real, inflation adjusted incomes are up, roughly 36% since 2000.
Nominal prices are going to continue to fall. Just don’t expect the median to fall back to the low $200s. From my crude math, based on current incomes somewhere around $400 for nominal prices seems reasonable, but I’ll be the first to admit my calculations were quite quick and dirty.
