Just an observation that Canadians on this sub reddit talk about real estate the way that most Americans talk about their 401k. In the states, you hope that your house goes up in value, but that's really not what your banking on. The main way that you hope to grow your money is from financial investments.
Certainly, nobody in the states talks about a "property ladder." That just strikes me as financial speculation/property bubble talk. The idea that rising real estate values are going to outpace both inflation and the stock market is obviously nuts and not sustainable in the long term.