and i'll put another one out there ... show me a chart that show "household income to mortgage ratio" and i'll be impressed. most highly mortgaged households nowadays have two income - even if one is part time.
to show a chart of mortgage against single income is not reflective of the times.
it also doesn't take into consideration that other household expenses have dropped - gosh, i bought an lcd tv the other week for 1/4 of the price that same tv cost me 5 years ago. my new car cost exactly the same as what my old car did 10 years ago (with same age and km's) - but wages have gone up since then.
oops - just read the rest of the thread and realised skater said the same thing (but better).
Great points Lizzie. True, the price of household items have dropped.
However don't forget that other things have increased. We now have mobile phone bills, internet connections, health care, private schools, and a lot of other things that were not part of household expenses 20 years ago.