Housing affordability in Australia has broadly declined since the early 1980s. The OECD’s price-to-income ratio index shows a 78% increase between 1980 and 2015. In Sydney, which has experienced significant price rises over the period, Parliamentary Library calculations indicate that the ratio of average disposable household income (Australia-wide) to median house prices has increased from approximately 3.3 in June 1981, to just over seven in June 2015. The following graph illustrates Australia-wide ratios from the early 1970s to 2012.