Housing affordability

My partner, a Canadian ex-pat, is convinced that most Aussies are mad. One of his reasons for this is that he believes we pay far to much for our homes.

Because he is an engineer he likes to make his point with numbers and statistics. For example,
according to a report he read the average Australian family spends 6 to 8 times their annual income to buy a house. In Canada and the United States it is 3 to 4 times.

So are we Aussies mad? Or is it a conspiracy by the State governments and the banks to help keep us enslaved with debt?

Personally I worry about how my children will ever be able to afford a house.

But perhaps there will be correction, as I believe there was from the late 1980's to the mid 1990's. We shall see.