<story><title>Home Price-to-Income Ratios</title><url>https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/home-price-income-ratios</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>thundergolfer</author><text>In late 1980s Melbourne, Australia my dad and his best friend were accountants and bought their houses for ~$40,000AUD, ~3 times their annual income. According to the best friend, this was considered a lot to pay for a home.&lt;p&gt;In 2020, those houses are around ~$1.8-2M, so ~22.5-25 times the annual income of someone that has their job today. In Melbourne and Sydney generally, housing is 10 and ~13x annual income. Above 6-8 is already considered _extremely unaffordable_. Sydney is 2nd only to Hong Kong in housing un-affordability.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s a profound change across a generation. Among my college-educated friends, the only one&amp;#x27;s thinking of buying property are either high income (doctors, investment bankers) or buying in markedly worse (thus cheaper) areas than they lived in as children.</text></comment>
<story><title>Home Price-to-Income Ratios</title><url>https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/home-price-income-ratios</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>Jaygles</author><text>I almost don&amp;#x27;t want to buy property as a protest to the horrible policies we have regarding basic necessities. Why should property owners be entitled to a major portion of my productivity&amp;#x2F;success? I&amp;#x27;ll rent the cheapest apartment I can find until the next housing crash or we have some sensible policy put through that negates the investment aspect of housing.</text></comment>