Australia

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Nationally, only 39 per cent of properties advertised for rent on realestate.com.au between July-December 2023 met that definition of affordable for the median, or middle, income household earning $111,000 a year.

"The deterioration in affordability has been driven by the significant increase in rents that we've seen since the pandemic, which wages have not kept pace with," observed PropTrack senior economist Angus Moore.

The report notes that a large part of this trend has been due to the increased popularity of traditionally cheaper regional and smaller metropolitan city markets since the pandemic started.

On the other end of the spectrum, New South Wales has regained its dubious honour of being the most expensive place in the country to live, particularly in Sydney where the median weekly rent is $750 for a house and $680 for a unit.

The report comes a day after Luci Ellis, Westpac Group chief economist (and former assistant Reserve Bank governor), said the RBA would have concerns about the state of the housing market right now.

"The issue at present is the low rate of new production of housing in the context of high construction costs and ongoing (if more moderate) population growth," Ms Ellis said on Friday.

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