St Ives vs Redwood Heights

How does Sydney property compare with the price of property in another beautiful coastal city in the Western world.

What would be a good candidate city to use as a comparison? How about San Fransisco (the Bay Area)? Both are beautiful coastal cities; with famous bridges; fantastic national parks nearby; mild climates.

Lets compare two similar properties in similar types of suburbs. The sort of houses a middle aged father with 3 kids (like me) would look to buy.

The facts below suggest Sydney houses cost 64% more than those in San Fransisco.

Is it because they don't have any wallabies in San Fransisco; or could there be the mother of all housing bubbles in Australia? DontBuyNow

	St Ives	Redwood Heights
Properties (click image to see listing)
Price	$AUD 775000; $USD 802000	$AUD 472000; $USD 489000
House type	Detached 4 bedroom, 3 bathrooms	Detached 4 bedroom, 3 bathrooms
Time to commute	67 minutes (to financial district by public transport @ 8am Mon)	54 minutes (to financial district by public transport @ 8am Mon)
Low crime suburb	Yes	Yes
Nearby wilderness	Kur-ring-gai national park, 5 kilometres	Redwood regional park, 6 kilometres