I saw a link to the
6th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey: 2010 over on CR the other other day (
PDF file).
Of the 272 markets surveyed, there were 103 affordable markets, 98 in the United States and 5 in Canada. This is an improvement from 87 in 2008. As before, the affordable markets include the three highest demand markets with more than 5,000,000 population in the high-income world, Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston.
Factoids for the Anglosphere:
Housing markets ranked by severity of housing unaffordability, using median multiple (median house price/median household income), Q3 2009, major metro markets.
Top 20 Ranking
1 Canada Vancouver 9.3
2 Australia Sydney 9.1
3 Australia Sunshine Coast 9.0
4 Australia Gold Coast 8.6
5 United States Honolulu, HI 8.2
6 United Kingdom Bournemouth 8.1
7 Australia Melbourne 8.0
8 Canada Victoria 7.9
9 Australia Wollongong 7.5
10 Australia Adelaide 7.4
11 Australia Newcastle 7.2
12 United States Santa Cruz 7.2
13 Australia Darwin 7.1
14 Australia Mandurah 7.1
15 United Kingdom London (GLA) 7.1
16 Australia Bundaberg 7.0
17 United States New York 7.0
18 United States San Francisco, CA 7.0
19 Australia Perth 6.9
20 Australia Hobart 6.8
National Medians (median house price/median household income) Q3 2009
Australia 6.8
Canada 3.7
Ireland 3.7
New Zealand 5.7
United Kingdom 5.1
United States 2.9
While
Californians are less insane, Australians have lost their marbles. Demographia tries to form an explanation:
"Plan-driven" land use regulation (more prescriptive regulation) is at the heart of the problem. It takes from 6.25 to 14.5 years to convert urban fringe land into new houses, which compares to less than 1.5 years before urban consolidation, and which remains the case in the "demand-driven" (more responsive) markets in the United States.
I don't buy it. Land use regulation alone doesn't account for the massive bubble.
Factoids for the Anglosphere:
7 comments:
Hey Lou, we aren't all insane, but we are led by clowns. Those clowns in turn appoint eeven more clowns to positions of authority and to commsissions and boards.
Australia is turning into one giant clown act.
We have gigalitres of water raining in our north, but the *scientific* commission into northern development was specifically told not to consider dams. So they didn't.
So the whole thing was a complete waste of time and money, and no jobs will come of it.
Wally, I think your markets are gonna crash hard as the commodity bubble vis a vis China unwinds. Like us, no one can say "they aren't making any more land" in Australia. You have a vast continent that is mostly empty except for the coasts.
Commodities are already unwinding a bit - copper is absolutely cratering. At least I know about one commodity being in the HVAC business.
Here in Massachusetts there are neighboring towns with similar incomes and school systems but with different zoning and very different real estate prices. I haven't studied the issue much but it sure seems like zoning is the main differentiator between similar towns with large housing price disparities.
Lou - please read the evidence provided within the Demographia Surveys and on the Demographia ( www,demographia.com )and Performance Urban Planning ( www.PerformanceUrbanPlanning.org ) websites - then see if you "buy it".
It simply is the old Law of Supply and Demand. Strangle the supply, and housing bubbles will form.
Hugh Pavletich
Co author - Annual Demographia Survey
Performance Urban Planning
Christchurch
New Zealand
Yes, we are insane. Not ALL of us, mind you, but all too many. "wanglese" has put it nicely and tersely and clearly.
Yes, I am Australian.
Ha! Our Vancouver beats out the Aussies. We're #1!
NR
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