Housing affordability still strained despite improvements in 2024: report
Stalled home values, rising incomes and falling mortgage rates continue to deliver improvements in housing affordability in Canada, according to a report released Wednesday.
And yet, National Bank of Canada estimates show the median household would need to double their annual earnings to qualify for a mortgage on a typical home across the country’s major urban markets.
The Montreal-based bank said in its report that the third quarter of the year marked the third consecutive improvement in housing affordability.
The national lender tracks housing affordability in 10 major markets across the country, broken down by home prices, household incomes and mortgage rates.
The mortgage payment on a representative home as a percentage of income (MPPI) fell 1.3 percentage points to 56.6 per cent in the third quarter. Home prices across the country only rose half a percentage point quarter-to-quarter, while median household incomes rose 1.1 per cent.
The benchmark five-year mortgage rate similarly declined by 17 basis points last quarter. That came as the Bank of Canada continued to deliver cuts to its policy rate, moves that broadly lower the cost of borrowing in the country and help sidelined homebuyers qualify for a mortgage.
Affordability improvements were spread across most of the markets included in the report, with the exception of Quebec City, which saw a larger gain in home prices in the quarter.
Vancouver saw the biggest affordability improvements, National Bank, but the city remains the least affordable overall. The MPPI stands at 92.3 per cent in Vancouver, compared to the 56.6 per cent average across major urban centres.
Toronto’s housing affordability levels reached their best levels since the first quarter of 2022,
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