Why Australia is floored by sky-high house prices

A nice summary of the situation. Why Australia is floored by sky-high house prices

I find that many Australians don’t truly appreciate how expensive housing is in Australia. Two simple examples might shed some light on the subject.

Sydney dwelling prices, for example, are around 50 per cent higher than prices in New York, despite New York being home to more accumulated wealth than anywhere in the world.

We shake our heads at the US over their lending practices leading up to the global financial crisis, but banks in Australia routinely lend two or three times as much to couples who need support from their parents simply to make the deposit.

Have to point out a gem in the comments (unless it's satire, hard to tell sometimes)

John, June 13, 2014 10:01
You anarchists are really funny. So the economy is extremely fragile but you want the RBA to jack up interest rates to crash the property market so you can buy a house on the cheap ? So, so funny. Like most anarchists, yourself and Steve Keen haven't really thought this thru have you ? According to such geniuses, Australian Banks are so highly geared to property that if there is a predicted 30 to 40% fall in the value of property, the Big 4 banks will be bankrupt. In other words your funds will be frozen, not only by your Bank but by the government as well. So please enlighten us, trying as hard you can to keep a straight face, how are you going to actually to buy that cheap house if you can't access your savings, or do you just have a very very very big mattress ? …

You know it's over when the bulls are pre-blaming the bears for the fallout from the market correcting. Markets that don't get blown into bubbles by bull cheerleading of bad regulation don't run the risk of devastating corrections, do they?