Canadian Home Affordability Declines

“Higher prices and an increase in mortgage rates have made home affordability more of a problem for the average Canadian family,” reports Julian Beltrame.

“RBC’s latest research on the portion of average household income needed to maintain a home shows that affordability deteriorated over the summer, the second consecutive drop in as many quarters.”

“In Toronto, the affordability measure rose 1.3 percentage point to 55.6 per cent, the second worst in the country.”

“The report says the biggest risk to maintaining manageable affordability levels would be a sharp rise in interest rates, but many analysts believe that is unlikely to occur as long as global economic growth remains moderate and inflation pressures soft.”