On the location vs price front, I think that's a bit of a red herring.

Because people generally want to live close to their jobs.

If cities have a lot of demand, it's partly because they have a lot of jobs, which means that the price of housing in cities relative to income is still an important metric.

Viewed by holding more of those things constant, the urban medianHousePrice : medianIncome is how much of people's lives we're requiring they dedicate in order to have a roof over their heads.