"Did a single broker ever complain to a media outlet that reporters were being "too optimistic" about house prices...?"

My mother recently gave me a hard time for not warning her about the impending doom in the markets. I do remember questioning, gently, at the time about investing in real estate as she considered a vacation home. My major gripe was that even being in the upper-half on the income spectrum, I could not afford a home in most of the cities that I have worked. This article draws a connection between the rise and incomes and the rise in home prices. It also figures that we are not at the bottom. This is good analysis! Perhaps my predictions of the Journals quality death were premature...