ConsЯcons
2013-01-23 02:18:17 UTC
Not Vancouver, that's for sure. Wonder what drove up home prices - and
kept them there?
_______________________________________
CBC News - Jan 22, 2013
Vancouver housing ranked among world's least affordable
House prices across Canada
Six Canadian cities on an international survey are described as having
severely unaffordable housing, with Vancouver listed as the second-most
unaffordable in the world behind Hong Kong.
Demographia, a U.S.-based consultancy that focuses on urban planning
issues, compiled a list comparing real estate affordability in 337 world
cities based on what they call the "median multiple" â the number of
times house prices are larger than average salaries.
Most affordable Canadian cities
Charlottetown
Fredericton
Moncton, N.B.
Saguenay, Que.
Saint John
Thunder Bay, Ont.
Trois-Rivieres, Que.
Windsor, Ont.
Source: Demographia
"In affordable and normal housing markets, house prices do not exceed
three times annual household incomes," the report reads. "If they do
exceed this standard, it indicates that there are political and
regulatory impediments to the supply of new housing that need to be
dealt with."
Thirty-five Canadian cities were included in the ranking.
Overall, Canada's median multiple score came in at 3.6, up slightly from
last year's 3.5 figure and enough to make Canadian real estate
"moderately unaffordable," Demographia says.
All in all, Canada had eight affordable markets, 17 moderately
unaffordable markets, four seriously unaffordable markets and six
severely unaffordable markets.
Those six are:
Toronto
Vancouver
Victoria
Montreal
Abbotsford, B.C.
Kelowna, B.C.
Across all the Canadian cities it tracked, Demographia found an average
score of 4.7. That means that broadly speaking, home prices in Canada's
35 largest cities are 4.7 times larger than the average salary in those
cities. The 4.7 figure is a deterioration from last year, when the
Canadian figure was 4.5.
Demographia says that figure would have been higher were it not for a
slowdown in Vancouver, with its "grossly overvalued market" resulting in
a median multiple score drop from 10.6 to 9.5.
CHART The slow fall of Canada's mortgage lending rates
However, Vancouver's score was still high enough to rank it second
overall on the list, behind Hong Kong. Sydney, Australia, was third
internationally.
In addition to Vancouver, Canada's two largest metropolitan areas are
reasons for concern, Demographia says. Toronto's score of 5.9 is up from
5.1 last year and two-thirds higher than 2004.
"Montreal continues to have severely unaffordable housing, with a median
multiple of 5.2, and has recently adopted even more stringent urban
containment regulation, could retard housing affordability even more in
the future," the report reads.
kept them there?
_______________________________________
CBC News - Jan 22, 2013
Vancouver housing ranked among world's least affordable
House prices across Canada
Six Canadian cities on an international survey are described as having
severely unaffordable housing, with Vancouver listed as the second-most
unaffordable in the world behind Hong Kong.
Demographia, a U.S.-based consultancy that focuses on urban planning
issues, compiled a list comparing real estate affordability in 337 world
cities based on what they call the "median multiple" â the number of
times house prices are larger than average salaries.
Most affordable Canadian cities
Charlottetown
Fredericton
Moncton, N.B.
Saguenay, Que.
Saint John
Thunder Bay, Ont.
Trois-Rivieres, Que.
Windsor, Ont.
Source: Demographia
"In affordable and normal housing markets, house prices do not exceed
three times annual household incomes," the report reads. "If they do
exceed this standard, it indicates that there are political and
regulatory impediments to the supply of new housing that need to be
dealt with."
Thirty-five Canadian cities were included in the ranking.
Overall, Canada's median multiple score came in at 3.6, up slightly from
last year's 3.5 figure and enough to make Canadian real estate
"moderately unaffordable," Demographia says.
All in all, Canada had eight affordable markets, 17 moderately
unaffordable markets, four seriously unaffordable markets and six
severely unaffordable markets.
Those six are:
Toronto
Vancouver
Victoria
Montreal
Abbotsford, B.C.
Kelowna, B.C.
Across all the Canadian cities it tracked, Demographia found an average
score of 4.7. That means that broadly speaking, home prices in Canada's
35 largest cities are 4.7 times larger than the average salary in those
cities. The 4.7 figure is a deterioration from last year, when the
Canadian figure was 4.5.
Demographia says that figure would have been higher were it not for a
slowdown in Vancouver, with its "grossly overvalued market" resulting in
a median multiple score drop from 10.6 to 9.5.
CHART The slow fall of Canada's mortgage lending rates
However, Vancouver's score was still high enough to rank it second
overall on the list, behind Hong Kong. Sydney, Australia, was third
internationally.
In addition to Vancouver, Canada's two largest metropolitan areas are
reasons for concern, Demographia says. Toronto's score of 5.9 is up from
5.1 last year and two-thirds higher than 2004.
"Montreal continues to have severely unaffordable housing, with a median
multiple of 5.2, and has recently adopted even more stringent urban
containment regulation, could retard housing affordability even more in
the future," the report reads.