Falling Home Prices: Bad or Good?

When home price declines were reported,
The press and the public deplored it,
Which may strike one as strange,
Since they're now in a range
Where the average Joe can afford it.

The latest release of the S+P/Case-Shiller Index of US home prices shocked many with the revelation that the average home value has fallen to 2002 levels; to which Dr. Goose asks: is this a completely bad thing?  Sure, underwater homeowners and their mortgage lenders may not like it, but what of those first-time homebuyers who had been priced out of the market?  The Wall Street Journal points out that today, the median wage earner can afford nearly 75% of all homes sold; that's a good thing, isn't it?