There are a lot of metrics that measure the affordability of Canada’s housing market.
But whether we’re taking into consideration the salary required to buy a home in major Canadian cities, finding out we’d be better off renting for the rest of our lives, or wondering how we, too, can fetch a scrapyard-eligible home in Vancouver for just $2.5 million, there is a consensus among the numbers: most millennials will realistically not be homeowners in the near future.
Sure, Toronto and Vancouver’s housing markets have shown signs of cooling, but expecting that bubble to burst anytime soon would be the same mistake everyone’s been making for a decade or so now.
Rentseeker.ca recently did its thing in turning a bunch of numbers into a palatable infographic that highlights how much prices have climbed in just one year.
It reveals that skyrocketing prices aren’t just a luxury housing market phenomenon – the upward trend is reflected nationwide, even in places where the definition of luxe living is “ample space to store your lobster trap.” Prince Edward Island, for example, saw the average cost of a home rise 17.1 per cent from 2015. Of course, this $5 million dollar spot with its own whale-watching tower might have helped skew that.
Nationwide, housing prices jumped 15.7%, with the national average cost per house at $508,567 as of March 2016 from an average of $439,477 as of March 2015.
Imagine the outrage if your Netflix subscription increased by almost 16 per cent between now and next year – and you only live there a few hours a day.
Other notable highlights from the data below:
Victoria -> 2016 Average Cost: $575,858 | (+13.2% from 2015)
Toronto -> 2016 Average Cost: $688,181 | (+12.1% from 2015)
Hamilton – Burlington -> 2016 Average Cost: $486,008 | (+9.5% from 2015)
Cities Showing Top Percentage Decreases Year-over Year:
Sherbrooke -> 2016 Average Cost: $288,750 | (-16.7% from 2015)
Windsor -> 2016 Average Cost: $371,223 | (-8.4% from 2015)
Saint John -> 2016 Average Cost: $154,700 | (-1.8% from 2015)
Quebec City -> 2016 Average Cost: $259,851 | (-.08% from 2015)
Calgary -> 2016 Average Cost: $455,220 | (-.05% from 2015)
Sherbrooke is close to decent skiing during the winter months.
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