As others have said, the catch is incredibly high cost of living. The housing market has grown by something like 10%-15% annually, for years. Obviously, it ca

As others have said, the catch is incredibly high cost of living. The housing market has grown by something like 10%-15% annually, for years. Obviously, it can't grow like that forever - even professional couples have problems pooling together money for a down-payments on decent median priced homes. And while you're building equity by owning, you're also kind of stuck to keeping up with salaries / career trajectories. But you know, with higher salaries comes more purchasing power. And then you also have foreigners parking their assets in the housing market, similar to what's happening in NYC and Vancouver. It's hard to compete even with a nice $500k salary, when some foreign investor can casually overbid you with millions in cash. Sounds a bit dramatic, yes, but that's life in most cities with hot markets and high salaries.