"Fiscally conservative socialism" in Canada has made them richer than Americans

[rgG]

But have you seen how high housing prices are in Canada? I only say this from watching some home buying shows on TV, and it always surprises me how expensive houses are in Canadian cities. Not quite sure why, other than maybe they didn't overbuild during the housing bubble and prices stayed high because of no collapse, but a house that might cost $200,000 here looks like it would be about twice that price in Canada.

Maybe someone with real world experience could speak to the cost of housing and cost of living in general. I would be interested to know if it is as expensive as it seems.

For US housing:
The median sales price of new houses sold in May 2012 was $234,500; the average sales price was $273,900. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of May was 145,000. This represents a supply of 4.7 months at the current sales rate.

For Canadian housing:
The average price for homes sold in June was C$369,339 ($362,097) on a national basis, down 0.8 per cent from the same month last year, with Vancouver prices falling 13.3 percent from June 2011.


You would have to look at specific areas to get better comparisons, but buying a house in Canada looks to be quite a bit higher. Not saying that they aren't in a better place than we are right now, just pointing out something I had noticed before.