This may come as a major shock, Vancouverites…but we’re living in a pretty expensive city. In fact, we just secured our spot as the least affordable city in North America. Groundbreaking stuff, right?
The 2022 Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey evaluates the world’s housing affordability in 92 markets in 8 countries, including Australia, Canada, China, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, the U.K., and the U.S.
The ranking process is fairly straightforward: a price-to-income ratio called a median multiple is used to determine the affordability of buying a house in each market. For example, Vancouver has a median multiple of 13.3 just after Hong Kong and Sydney, with 23.2 and 15.3 respectively.
This means that a home in Vancouver costs more than 13 times the average annual income, which is up from 11.9 in 2019.
Yeah… we’re thinking Maddy Perez had the right idea.
Vancouver, you better be joking…
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The Urban Reform Institute and the Frontier Centre for Public Policy cite the “unprecedented deterioration in housing affordability during the pandemic” as a leading cause of declining housing affordability internationally.
In Canada, housing prices have doubled in the last 6 years alone. With domestic migration to smaller markets in B.C. on the rise, it may be time to consider moving elsewhere if you’re looking to be a homeowner in the next couple of years.
Toronto (10.5) is ranked the second least affordable city in Canada, just after Vancouver. Montreal (6.1) and Ottawa (5.4) are only slightly better, with Edmonton (3.6) ranked the most affordable city in the country, and Calgary also in the top 10 globally.
Here’s to hoping that we do better next year, Vancouver!
