Over the 1980s, inequality did not increase in Canada or However, aggregate measures such as median house prices compared to the Netherlands but did increase in Sweden, the U. K. and the U. S. median household income do not capture the incidence or severity of Comparisons between Canada and the U. S. have shown that income housing affordability at the household level, only whether the median inequ [...] At the same macroeconomic indicators identified that, following the recessions time, an increasing percentage of both owners and renters felt that of 1980-1981 and 1991-1992, there was a discernible increase in their dwellings were in need of repair, indicative (at the least) that the percentage of renters devoting 30% or more of their income to the quality of the stock was not improving significa [...] The increase an increase in the quantity, nor improvement in the state of repair of was larger in 1996 than in 1986, reflecting the deeper recession in housing, explains a rising incidence of affordability problems. [...] The increase in unemployment may have been the link between the economic downturn and the increase in the incidence of affordability problems, although the relationship was not very strong. [...] Changes in the level of affordability among owners and renters were compared to the trends in the costs for each tenure and the household income of owners versus renters, allowing an examination of the relative important of the factors at work.