Housing has gone up nation-wide, but not everywhere is nearly as crazy as the major urban centers (Vancouver, Toronto, etc). For mid-sized cities or smaller, I don't think the gap can be called a "chasm".
if i sold my house today and found a place to rent for the same housing costs, we would only have to work 4.5 years before "retiring" (work by choice, earn enough interest to cover expenses) compared to the 10 to 13.5 years I mentioned above.
but i don't want to sell right now to "retire" earlier. my kids are still young and in school and we love our place. We can walk and bike almost everywhere. My current job is still interesting. If things change (jobs, health, etc.) then maybe I would sell and move.
My prediction is you'll find holding turns out to be a wise financial move as well, I think another doubling of housing (houses, not condos) prices will happen, within 10 years if not much sooner.
sure there are extremes, one should be making a multiple above the poverty line. but if you assume this is the case, then how much you make can either be translated into earlier financial freedom through an increased savings rate or "nicer things".
here is an ouput of my simple retirement calculator:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8k8RO7VeaIbc0JlUExLZmktSkE...
Sorry, just a little bitter that I lived below my means and actually saved, unlike those who stretched dangerously to buy as much house as possible, and essentially won the lottery in the process.
> I don’t count house equity in our extreme retirement plan, as far as I am concerned, it will be icing on top of the cake.
If that turns out to be true, you are doing very well indeed with your saving. For typical income in Vancouver vs typical housing price (and even in other parts of Canada, but to a lesser extent), your house is the cake and everything else is a rounding error. There is a vast net worth chasm in this country between those who purchased before housing started going nuts vs those who did not, regardless of your saving level.