Good question, and one sure to induce the wrath of the mods on this site. My opinion, fwiw, is that there is no market here, nor will there be for a very long time. The "market" that existed during the boom was based on false information, mania and in some cases, fraud. What is left after all that does not constitute an efficient market.
for one, every year there are thousands of people getting older and looking to move from parents home.
they are still a market. thnakfully they are mostly waiting for prices to come down further. they won't be debted to eyeballs, they will never see a defined benefit pension and mc williams will call them....
Seriously though, there's all kinds of arguements in other assets types such as bonds about the market being disjointed and liquidity premiums.
The liquidity premium could apply equally to the housing market i.e. you'll get more value if you hold it long term than try speculate in the more immediate term