Toronto & Vancouver in 5 Least Affordable Housing Markets Globally
Written by SOURCE on February 24, 2021
A recent report has ranked Toronto and Vancouver among the most expensive cities for real estate in the world.
The report, published by the Urban Reform Institute and Frontier Centre for Public Policy, showed that Toronto is “severely unaffordable,” a category for markets found to have a price-to-income ratio of 5.1 or more. The city scored a ratio of 9.9.
Canadian counterpart Vancouver followed, with a ratio of 13.0. The two cities were ranked along with Hong Kong (20.7), Sydney (11.8), Auckland (10.), and several others.
The report came up with its ratings by measuring average income in relation to housing prices in the third quarter of 2020. A total of 92 metropolitan areas were included, across eight nations.
Other Canadian cities did not rank much better, however. Montreal ranked 62nd on the list and Ottawa-Gatineau in 57th.
Edmonton was ranked as the most affordable Canadian city on the list, tied in 17th place with three other cities. The top cities for affordable housing are all in the U.S., including Pittsburgh, Rochester, Buffalo, and St. Louis.
“The number of housing markets that have become severely unaffordable in the United States and Canada has grown steadily since 2004,” says the report.
“Housing affordability deteriorated the equivalent of six years of annual household incomes in Toronto between two and three years in Montreal, Portland, and Ottawa-Gatineau.”
Other recent reports found that you now have to make over $127,000 per year to comfortably afford a home in Toronto.
As prices continue to rise at shocking numbers, some are waiting for the housing bubble to burst. Toronto was named as the only North American city on the verge of a housing bubble late last year.
