Surprisingly then the multiple is currently aprox. 7.38, wow. Also I hand't realsied that the graph for the UK has yet to start falling. The data here goes up to the end of 2007 at which time the price was still rising. This graphs looks pretty 'toppy' though to my eyes.
A similar, but not directly comparable graph GMO drew for the US in Januray shows median home price over median family income. That multiple has a mean at 2.8, peaked at 3.9 in 2005 and had fallen to 3.7 by the end of 2007. So the fall has been going on sometime across the pond.
Note however that the national US picture doesn't do justice to the extent of the bubble in specific regions, or specifically what Paul Krugman refers to as zoned areas (where land isn't in inexaustible supply) in this video...
Along with the TED spread this is one of those graphs that will take pride of place as part of my 'economic radar'.
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Earnings data going back to 1952 was found here:
http://www.measuringworth.com/ukearncpi/
Unfortunately the numbers were rebased to 1913=100, so then I had to dig out some figures dealing in real unadjusted pounds from the ONS, e.g. from here.
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=285
And the house price data going back to 1952 came from this lovely resource at the Nationwide:
http://www.nationwide.co.uk/hpi/historical.htm
