Check out prices in Toronto, Canada. Need a few more zeros[1]. Housing prices are out of control.

[1] https://www.blogto.com/real-estate-toronto/2021/08/new-toron...

The blog post is about allotment so not a fair comparison. However, its supply and demand, extremely high demand and influx of people who want to live in Toronto.

There are places outside of Toronto, Canada which are affordable and have better price to comfort ratio. London Ontario, Gatineau Quebec, Regina Sask, Calgary Alberta are quite affordable and have all the modern life style options available.

That's true of essentially everywhere. The Bay Area is something of an outlier--partly because of geography--but there are a number of large expensive metros that you can still get to pretty affordable housing by driving an hour or two. (Or even taking a commuter rail in some cases.) To say nothing of the many metros that aren't especially expensive.

London is better than Toronto, but I'm not sure I'd call it affordable anymore. Real estate prices for a basic detached home have more than doubled in the last 5 years.

But if you have a not-terrible job, you'd be able to get that much in a loan to repay over a few years. At that point, as long as it's below rent level, you're winning.