Edmonton, Calgary “most affordable” cities
April 27, 2022
Two-bedroom condos in Edmonton listed in April 2022 from $124,000 | Realtor.ca
Edmonton is the most affordable major city for housing in Canada. Calgary is in among the top 10 most affordable cities in the world.
But, according to the 2022 edition of Demographia International Housing Affordability, Vancouver has Canada’s most expensive housing and is the third most unaffordable out of 92 cities on the planet. The annual Demopgraphia survey looked at cities in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Singapore and Hong Kong. Of the 92 cities surveyed, Vancouver was only behind Hong Kong and Sydney, Australia. Last year Vancouver was ahead of Australian metropolis.
The survey uses a median multiple to assess affordability. That's a ratio of income to housing prices, using the local median for both. An affordable city would see a rating of three or below.
In Edmonton, Canada’s most affordable city, the current composite home price, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association, is $364,400 and the average annual income is $95,632, based on 2022 data from the Average Salary Survey. In Vancouver, currently, the average income is $89,971 and the composite home price is $1,360,500.
None of the major Canadian cities were rated as "affordable," and, in fact, only one North American city (Pittsburgh at 2.7) was deemed affordable by the survey. Edmonton scored a 3.6, which was the fourth best of those surveyed and the best in Canada. Both major Albertan cities were deemed moderately affordable; Calgary was second-best in Canada and in the top 10 most affordable at No.4.
Ottawa (5.6) and Montreal (6.1) were both were considered severely unaffordable. Toronto was in the same category, but much closer to Vancouver with a 10.5. Vancouver was 13.3.
"The markets in Canada have a median multiple of 6.0, up from 4.4 in pre-pandemic 2019," state the study's authors. "This increase of 1.6 years in median household income [required to afford a home] is the largest among included nations in the report."
