Canada's housing market takes top marks for affordability, with Regina leading the way in a new six-country study that includes the United States and Great Britain.
The research examined how many years it would take a worker earning the average wage in a given city to make enough money to equal the average home price there. The survey looked at 159 major urban markets in Canada, the United States, Ireland, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Regina tied for first place with two U.S. cities, Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Youngstown, Ohio, at two years. Winnipeg and Quebec finish ninth with 2.5 years.
Only one Canadian city, Vancouver, made the list of the top 25 least affordable cities. It finished at the bottom of that list. Researchers found it would take someone earning the average wage for that city 7.7 years of annual income to equal the average price of a home. The most expensive cities are both in California: Los Angeles at 11. 4 years and San Diego at 10.5. Australia had the least affordable housing market of any country.
The survey, conducted by Demographia International, a U.S. consulting and research firm, described 42 of the cities in the study as affordable. That means it takes less than three years of average income to meet the average price of a home. All of these markets were in North America with 35 in the United States and seven in Canada.
The study found 36 cities to be moderately affordable, 22 seriously unaffordable and 59 severely unaffordable.
© The Globe and Mail
