I would say that is a problem in any place where it is desirable to live these days. Locations I've experienced first hand: London, Sydney, Bay area, Los Angeles, Vancouver... and I'm sure there are many more where you can't buy on that salary.
[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottbeyer/2016/08/12/tokyos-af...
Toronto has more construction (120) cranes than anyone else in North America (Seattle & LA second at 50), and prices are still crazy even with a building boom.
* https://www.on-sitemag.com/heavy-equipment/toronto-remains-u...
* https://canada.constructconnect.com/dcn/news/economic/2019/0...
And that 120 is just in the city proper, the suburbs have more towers as well:
* https://www.livabl.com/2019/07/246-cranes-toronto-suburban-c...
First, to talk about the place I know best, cities in the UK outside London are pretty expensive too. The UK has a disproportionate share of the world's expensive cities, despite being a relatively middle-income country. Demand isn't rising fast, it is just impossible to build (usually due to "environmental" planning regulations). That is an unforced error.
Second, there are examples of large cities that don't have these issues. Berlin is probably one of the most well-known examples, they had a ton of public housing. They started breaking some of these buildings up, and guess what...rents are going up.
Third, it is worth getting some perspective on this. There are cities that have almost no land that have managed much higher growth. Property in Singapore, for example, is expensive by international standards but, given per capita incomes and given the population density, they have actually not done badly (particularly when you look at access instead of average price). That is equally true of China (some cities in China have gone for 0 to millions of people...this makes the growth in most Western cities look flaccid). You could even say that New York has managed this reasonably well too (there has been investment in transport infrastructure at least, which is another cause of rising prices in some cities).
It is hard to generalise about this because policy is often made locally. But I think it is also clear that part of the problem is local policy causing a problem in aggregate. That is systemic and unrelated to demand.
How is that a counter example?
> Second, there are examples of large cities that don't have these issues. Berlin is probably one of the most well-known examples,
> and guess what...rents are going up
It seems you are contradicting yourself, or it is not clear what you wanted to say.
> part of the problem is local policy causing a problem in aggregate
Definitely a problem. But I would say there's not many cities that can escape it. As for NYC, which you mentioned, in the last 10 years the average price nearly doubled [1]. While salaries didn't grow that fast.
High living costs are a self imposed problem: housing regulation and zoning.
Had zero problem saving up a down payment in a couple years. Brand new houses were $150k and older, nice home were $90k.
Of course the job prospects aren’t as good as a major city, but housing isn’t a major issue.
Isn't that around the time all the housing price dropped?
> mid-sized city in Michigan
That might not be in the list of the places where most people desire to live.
> Of course the job prospects aren’t as good as a major city, but housing isn’t a major issue.
I think this is not following my comment. The point is not to talk about where affordable places are, but about how affordable places where a lot of people want to go can be.
Making it possible for everyone to live in their most desirable city isn't realistic.