Canadians allowed this to happen in the space of three generations. My father, a senior public school administrator, complained that his custom-built executive home cost him a full year's salary. Despite earning twice my father's salary, I could only afford a 'fixer-upper' for about three times my salary. 

None of my three adult children can hope to own a home in the city where they were born. Nor can they rent! Two have moved to smaller communities. Both are fully employed. One rents, the other lives in his car. My third son is still here only because he's tied to the business he owns. He rents a room in an apartment he shares with old school buddies. All are well-educated and gainfully employed, but still living like students many years after school.

The problem is not foreign buyers. Developers, speculators, and colluding gov'ts are to blame for the disappearance of affordable or rental housing. For our kid's generation, wages have not kept up to soaring housing costs.