Rent is much more closely tied to median income than purchase prices. I live in Vancouver and people I know who own homes are either older people that got into

Rent is much more closely tied to median income than purchase prices. I live in Vancouver and people I know who own homes are either older people that got into the market when it was affordable, or younger couples where both have jobs and pay a significant amount of their salary to mortgage interest. Usually they were only able to buy because their parents are sitting on hundreds of thousands of equity in their homes and lend them a deposit. People buying here are doing so because they feel like the prices will just continue rising, so they sacrifice a lot now rather than a lot more later. On the other hand renting feels like dead money so people won't stretch as much.