Purchasing a place to call your own is a goal many Canadians have, but it’s a dream escaping the middle class thanks to prices that continue to soar. An average home in Vancouver will set you back almost one million dollars according to real estate marketing company RentSeeker, which analyzed housing prices across the country in 2015. Their data show that a family needs to make $120,297 a year to afford the $909,293 price tag. British Columbia is the most expensive province with an average home price of $667,480.
Toronto and Ontario aren’t far behind. The average price across the province is $471,654. In Toronto you’ll have to spend $641,617 to buy a home, and that will require a combined annual salary of $87,407 according to RentSeeker. This helpful conversion tool converts annual salaries to hourly rates.
The cheapest city in Canada was Trois Rivieres, Que., the country’s oldest industrial city with a tiny population of only 48,285. The average price for a home there is only $162,313, and you need to make a meager $28,515 a year to afford it.
“To afford a home in Trois Rivieres, Que., you need to make around $13.75 per hour.”
The cheapest city in Ontario is Windsor, with an average home price ringing in at just under two hundred thousand dollars ($198,113). “Factors that have impacted home prices in Canada over the past decade include a strong economy, low interest rates, and favourable mortgage insurance rules,” according to Priced Out, a study conducted by RBC and the Pembina Institute that examined housing trends across the country.
“These factors have increased the demand for homes and driven up prices across Canada, including in the GTA.”
Demand has caused Vancouver and Toronto to become the hottest destinations in Canada—with a high quality of life and natural beauty to boast as assets. But foreign investment is also driving up prices by eroding the supply of housing available to Canadians living in those cities. British Columbia recently introduced a 15 per cent foreign buyers tax to curb escalating costs—a move Toronto is watching closely.
READ MORE: Metro Vancouver home sales dropped 75% after foreign buyer tax announced: realtor
Average rental prices across the country echo the lows and highs of home prices, with Vancouver and Toronto once again leading the pack. A recent study by Urbanation found that the average rent for a condominium unit in Toronto was almost $2,000 a month.
“There’s virtually no vacancy in the marketplace,” said Vice President Shaun Hildebrand. A decrease in the supply of rental units is one of the factors driving up price. The trend is a troubling one for the city’s housing advocate, Ana Bailao. “You lose the opportunity to attract a lot of investment that wants to come to our city,” she said.
“Companies start looking at our city as a place that’s too expensive for their workers to work, too expensive to attract human capital.”
Taking a closer look at Toronto, property management company Sky View Suites compiled data on the average sale price of homes near TTC subway stations. The analysis took into account values of detached homes and condominiums with three or more bedrooms from June 2015 to June 2016.
Homes near York Mills, Castle Frank, and Summerhill stations had the highest values, while those near Warden, Kennedy, and Victoria Park stations—all in the city’s east end—had the lowest. Generally speaking, proximity to transit hubs is known to have a positive impact on property values.