Vancouver is in a ‘full-blown crisis’ for housing affordability: Report
which looks at housing trends across the country, found that it has never been as expensive to own a home anytime, anywhere in Canada as it was in Vancouver in the last quarter of 2023.The report stated that Vancouver is in a “full-blown crisis.”“At a staggering 106.4 per cent, the share of a median income needed to cover ownership costs means that only a select few high-income earners can afford to buy—or that considerable wealth must be amassed (or received) to put down towards a purchase,” the report states.“This significantly narrows the potential pool of buyers in the market, keeping activity soft and prices flat recently.
We see little change from this in the months ahead.”A one-bedroom open-plan apartment in Yaletown is currently listed for sale at just under $600,000.“It is becoming more and more difficult with first-time homebuyers as prices rise here in Vancouver,” realtor Mike Stewart told Global News.With the minimum five per cent down, a mortgage and strata fees the Yaletown apartment used as an example would cost someone just under $4,000 a month to own.“I’m seeing personally a lot of parents helping out with the downpayment to meet that 20 per cent threshold so that the payments are a little bit more palatable, a little more affordable for, you know, the first-time homebuyers,” mortgage broker Sherlock Yam said.The report also found that extreme affordability pressures deteriorated in Victoria in the closing months of 2023.“Those pressures weigh heavily on the market in the early stages of 2024, restraining the recovery in demand and driving prices down—albeit just barely,” the report read.It found that existing owners may also be feeling the financial squeeze and that new listings have trended above
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