Housing costs in B.C. are the least affordable of any province in Canada, according to an RBC Economics Research report issued yesterday.
While affordability levels improved in mid-2009, the report found that housing costs had rebounded to pre-recession levels in B.C. by the end of last year. These costs are also continuing to increase at a faster rate in B.C. than in any other province.
“The super-charged Vancouver-area market has been at the forefront of the rally … in Canada over the past year,” RBC senior economist Robert Hogue said in a release.
Based on the report’s findings, getting a mortgage for a detached bungalow in Vancouver requires 73.4 per cent of an average family’s pre-tax income (up 4.8 percentage points this quarter). That’s much higher than in Calgary (36.5 per cent), Montreal (39.7 per cent) and Toronto (49.1 per cent).
