It's also true in Boston, which like SF has a housing stock constrained by geography. Doing a quick search on Craigslist the prices are also a good deal lower in Vancouver than Boston. I'm looking at you, $3500/mo 1-br rental in Boston with peeling paint leaky windows, and $2500/mo basement studio in the 'burbs. It's not uncommon to see (grotesquely) wealthy foreign (and some old-money domestic) students buy property here, at whatever the cost, further driving up the unattainability for those who actually intend to stay and integrate with the local community.

I have a tech salary in the low six figures and I'm considering a commute from Providence because I'm priced out of Boston. I don't want roommates any more in my thirties, and I'd like to actually have a place for my car (long-distance work and personal trips). I'd love to buy in Boston (or Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline, or other places served by mass transit), but I'm simply priced out of the market. In what world can anyone afford to buy the $1-2MM 1-br condos here and the $2-3MM houses? Local financiers, sure, working physicians, and some corporate execs, but they're a minority of the population.

Paying rent in Boston, you know you're being exploited, but you don't have a choice. My current place is owned by a Chinese "investor" who uses unlicensed contractors to do unpermitted construction on an illegal third-floor apartment above mine. The construction quality is abysmal (think toilets not attached to the floor and fluorescent lights half-hidden behind drywall), but unless I want to be homeless I have no recourse because all leases turn over on September 1st. My place just has peeling paint and cabinets that fall off the wall, and at least me and my roommates are only paying $5k/mo for it. shrugs