Increases in house prices slowed down around the period of the financial crisis, but then price inflation went back to its pre-crisis level. Overall, house prices in household income increased sharply, and after falling around 2008, the house price to rent ratio returned to rising sharply. Recently, house prices declined in energy-producing regions, continued to rise strongly in Vancouver and Toronto, and have risen modestly elsewhere. In this context, the purchase of real estate often becomes unaffordable for low-income families who, as it will be seen in the next section, are increasingly likely to rent their homes. The standardised price-rent and price-income ratios show the current price-rent and price-income ratios relative to their respective long-term averages.