After years of skyrocketing real estate prices, Toronto has earned its place among the five most unaffordable cities in the world.
According to the Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey, Hong Kong, Sydney, Los Angeles, and London are the only cities where rising house prices relative to income reflect starker inequality. Over 14 years, Toronto’s house prices have doubled in relation to household incomes.
“The interests of house owners do not align with those of would be house owners,” reads an intro to the study. “Rising house prices relative to incomes pit the old against the young and the rich against the poor.”
With Toronto’s median household income less than $66,000 a year and the average price for a single-family detached house now more than $1.1 million, home-seekers in Canada’s largest city are certainly feeling the unrelenting squeeze of very rich people buying up very limited space.
But there is hope, if you can call it that, for price stability: the same study reveals Toronto is also rated with the worst housing “bubble risk.” Not that any of the economic turmoil caused by a housing crisis would really help anyone afford a house in the near future.
So, how do other Canadian cities compare? Well, “Montréal has seriously unaffordable housing,” as does Calgary and Vancouver, and “Ottawa-Gatineau is moderately unaffordable.” On a bright note, the study highlights “moderately unaffordable” Edmonton as Canada’s most affordable major market. In total, Canada is home to 46 unaffordable real estate markets. China, by contrast, only has one: Hong Kong. The United Kingdom, with nearly twice Canada’s population and, like, a sliver of its space, has 33 unaffordable markets.
Moncton, meanwhile, is the most affordable real estate market in Canada, a title it’s held for six years in a row. And that’s not all the City Where Sidney Crosby Went to High School offers. According to the most recent Regional Labour Market Report Card, Moncton is the best city in Canada to land a job.