Those charts make my point. Look at the prices in real terms. SFO is more than 2x NYC and 4x the national average!
A $400k home in NYC is within reasonable reach of a dual income professional couple.
Prices are high generally because capital is cheap and monetary policy has made other traditional "safe" investments useless.
The income ratio based numbers reflect how the "middle class" is getting the proverbial shaft.
When wages are stagnant for 30 years and property appreciates, you need to accept the fact that you're not capable of supporting a circa 1986 middle class standard of living. My grandfather owned a home in NYC, kept new cars, and had a summer camp in the mountains on a blue-collar city government income and second job as a boilerman in the 1960s. That's no longer achievable. I personally barely have that level of buying power as a IT executive.
