Vancouverites are finding it even harder to afford homes across Metro Vancouver as house values continue to rise, the latest Desjardins Affordability Index has found.
Vancouver appears to remain the least affordable region in Canada with the average property sale reaching $850,000, or twice as high as the combined average home price in other cities ($424,000).
The index studied 18 metropolitan areas in the country, but excluded the Atlantic area's real estate investing scene.
That puts the average sale in Metro Vancouver 10 times higher than the average household income of around $86,000 a year, the Vancouver Sun reported.
Meanwhile, Calgary still has affordable housing as the average household income is nearly $120,000 and the average cost of housing is around $445,000.
“It shows that people from Vancouver don’t have the income necessary to buy a home. Maybe the investors market is more important in Vancouver, especially for condos, and that looks like a factor,” Hélène Bégin, Desjardins’ chief economist, was quoted as saying. “It would be really hard to buy a home without help from your family or someone else.”
Despite the rising prices, Vancouver’s resale property market is still growing over the last three years, with a 2 per cent increase since the start of 2015 – or a 12.9 per cent jump from the previous quarter.
Vancouver appears to remain the least affordable region in Canada with the average property sale reaching $850,000, or twice as high as the combined average home price in other cities ($424,000).
The index studied 18 metropolitan areas in the country, but excluded the Atlantic area's real estate investing scene.
That puts the average sale in Metro Vancouver 10 times higher than the average household income of around $86,000 a year, the Vancouver Sun reported.
Meanwhile, Calgary still has affordable housing as the average household income is nearly $120,000 and the average cost of housing is around $445,000.
“It shows that people from Vancouver don’t have the income necessary to buy a home. Maybe the investors market is more important in Vancouver, especially for condos, and that looks like a factor,” Hélène Bégin, Desjardins’ chief economist, was quoted as saying. “It would be really hard to buy a home without help from your family or someone else.”
Despite the rising prices, Vancouver’s resale property market is still growing over the last three years, with a 2 per cent increase since the start of 2015 – or a 12.9 per cent jump from the previous quarter.
