Unaffordable housing

Quote
One gauge of how depressing these numbers are, he said, is to look at how unaffordable housing has become in some major cities. As a ratio of median home price to median family income, it will take 5.2 years to afford a home in Toronto, 7.1 years in London and 9.3 years in Vancouver.


Mr. Kotkin
Adjunct Fellow
Legatum Institute in London.


My view
In my book on financial planning (www.tankinlian.com/ishop), and the educational talk that I give under FISCA (www.fisca.sg), I recommend that a consumer should buy a property not exceeding 5 years of the family income. I find that some consumers are paying 7 years of family income for their property, which is too high.  This quote from Mr. Kotkin give a similar benchmark on what is an affordable housing.