The RBC has release its ‘Housing Trends and Affordability Report’ for November 2009.
Unsurprisingly, Vancouver leads the pack nationally, with an average Detached bungalow requiring 66.8% of the average household income to service a 25-year mortgage loan at a five-year fixed rate after a 25% down payment.
Here is an excerpt from the report -
“Vancouver — Heating up rapidly
The Vancouver housing market continues to roar back in a spectacular way and property prices are now heating up closer and closer to a boil. Resale activity has surged since spring and the rebound has more than fully reversed the dramatic drop that occurred in 2008. The concomitant rise in the number of units available for sale has been more subdued, which has considerably tightened the market. In fact, the ratio of sales to new listings has returned to levels last seen in 2005 and early 2006 when prices were rising at a double-digit annual pace. This near-frenzied tone to the market is occurring despite still historically poor, and now deteriorating, levels of affordability. In the third quarter, RBC’s affordability measures for Vancouver worsened for the first time since early 2008, rising between 1.7 and 4.3 percentage points. These increases were, in fact, the biggest among major cities in Canada. Even though the affordability measures fell substantially during 2008 and early 2009, they remain well above long-term averages.”
