Around here (northern European capital), salaries are lower than the US counterparts. I would say a fairly qualified job in IT earns you around $100k (yearly, before all taxation). Houses cost around $1M outside town.
Even people with less qualified jobs buys at these prices. I would have expected $1.5M to be affordable with Silicon Valley salaries. I wonder if interest rates are that much higher in the US..?
It seems like real estate prices are increasing rapidly in every major city around the world. I hear the same story from London, Sydney, SF etc.
BTW, I would take that 50 year and 30 year fixed mortgage term any day. 30 year fixed at 4.4% seems like extremely good offer from this side of the fence.
Most of the people I know who have bought real estate recently are scraping by and using their basement apartments as mortgage helpers. Another issue I have noticed is the lax standards in issuing mortgages, there are companies writing employment letters for $1-2k in order for couples to qualify for mortgages. Banks and government is wising up but the damage has already been done.