![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6976871.1721873052!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.jpg)
DEVELOPING Jasper updates: Wildfire reaches townsite
One of two wildfires threatening Jasper National Park has reached the townsite.
It recently got a tiny bit more affordable to own a home in Canada — but according to RBC economists, the affordability crisis is still raging in many parts of Canada.
A new report from RBC on housing trends, published in late June, found that the bank’s affordability measure for ownership costs fell in the first quarter of 2023 for the first time in nearly three years.
The way they measure the affordability of home ownership is by what percentage of the median household income goes to ownership costs.
The percentage of median household income that went to ownership costs across Canada in the first quarter of 2023 was 59.5 per cent, a drop of 1.6 percentage points.
It’s not exactly a steep decline — but after climbing consistently since the start of 2020, any easing of the burden of ownership costs likely comes as a welcome respite for many.
The report found that the Bank of Canada pausing its rate hikes helped to give homeowners a break.
“The policy shift helped stabilize mortgage rates, allowing the price correction to lower ownership costs associated with a home purchase in the first quarter of 2023,” RBC economist Robert Hogue wrote in the report.
“While welcome, the easing in ownership costs barely makes a dent in reversing the enormous loss of affordability since mid-2020.”
Owning a home may be an “impossible” dream for those with middle-income households in expensive cities such as Vancouver, Victoria and Toronto, the report stated, and is still difficult in Montreal, Ottawa and Halifax “to a lesser degree.”
While prices have fallen in the housing market itself, the demand-supply equation has made it hard for many to find a home, with more on the market than ever before and not enough properties up for grabs, according to the report.
The report included a breakdown of some of the most active cities in terms of the housing market.
RBC economists found that the continuing climb of ownership costs in Vancouver has finally broken, with the first quarter of 2023 seeing the first dip since mid-2020. However, it is still the most expensive place in Canada to own a home, at 96.1 per cent on RBC’s affordability measure. The only time it has been more unaffordable to own a home was the previous quarter. Despite some movement in the market, with buyers and sellers returning to the field in the spring, the report states that RBC expects “the persistence of extreme unaffordability stress to cap the market’s recovery.”
Victoria saw its first break in more than two years, with its affordability measure on RBC’s scale dropping down 2.1 per cent. But it is still a “staggering” 73.5 per cent, making it the third-least affordable market among those that RBC tracks.
There’s a similar story playing out in Toronto. Over the past two years, the city has seen a 10 per cent increase in RBC’s affordability measure, which the two percentage point decline in the last quarter has only started to reverse. Owning a home in Toronto still takes nearly 80 per cent of a family’s median household income, putting the situation “still deep in crisis territory.”
Things are “challenging” for buyers in Ottawa, according to the report, with the affordability measure near its worst-ever levels for the region at 47.1 per cent. Evidence that prices could be rising again doesn’t help, the report states.
Compared to some other major cities, Calgary is in a better position, with home resales staying above pre-pandemic levels, and overall affordability much better than other regions. Edmonton is even more affordable right now, according to the report, with an aggregate affordability measure of 34.2 per cent, with Saskatoon at 34.3 per cent.
Regina is currently the most affordable market in Western Canada, scoring 28.4 per cent on RBC’s scale.
“But the impact on affordability may be short-lived,” the report warned. “A strengthening in resale activity this spring has tightened up demand-supply conditions, sending prices higher.”
In Montreal, home resales are more than 30 per cent below pre-pandemic levels. Quebec City has largely stayed the same across the first quarter of 2023, with the average prices “still within reach” for average buyers in the area.
On the east coast, those in Saint John, N.B. are still grappling with the sharp increase in ownership costs since late-2021, with home resales having plummeted by 40 per cent since then.
"New listings lately have sunk to decades lows,” the report stated.
In Halifax, new listings also fell to a “20-year low,” due in part to a huge drop in supply. And St. John’s, N.L. remained one of the most affordable places among those RBC tracks, with a 27.2 percentage score on the affordability measure, although soaring interest rates made purchasing a home more of a challenge.
One of two wildfires threatening Jasper National Park has reached the townsite.
Alberta has called in the Canadian Armed Forces to help assist with the worsening wildfire situation in the province.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday delivered a solemn call to voters to defend the country's democracy as he laid out in an Oval Office address his decision to drop his bid for reelection and throw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris.
Staff at a Barrie child care centre say they are frustrated by what they call a local MPP's inadequate response after a car crashed through a window in one of the toddler rooms.
The North American Aerospace Defence Command (Norad) intercepted two Russian and two Chinese bombers flying near Alaska Wednesday in what appears to be the first time the two countries have been intercepted while operating together.
An analyst and an assistant coach with Canada Soccer are being removed from the Canadian Olympic Team and 'sent home immediately,' according to the Canadian Olympic Committee.
After a handful of Australian water polo players tested positive for COVID-19 this week, questions have emerged around how the spread of the disease will be mitigated at the Summer Olympic Games in Paris.
A B.C. man who was hired to help a non-profit build a food hub but instead spent the money on personal expenses – including travel, restaurants, booze and cannabis – has been ordered to pay more than $120,000 in damages.
Two people are dead and two others suffered serious injuries following a shooting that police have described as a 'gun battle' outside a plaza in Scarborough, Ont. early Wednesday morning.
A local First Nations elder and veteran is helping to bring the Ojibwe language to a well-known film for the first time.
A cat who fled her Montreal home nearly a decade ago has been reunited with her family after being found in Ottawa.
A woman in Waterloo, Ont. is out thousands of dollars for a car crash she wasn’t involved in.
A swarm of bees living in a lamppost in Winnipeg’s Sage Creek neighbourhood has found a new home for its hive.
Around 100 acres of Manitoba Crown Land near the Saskatchewan border is being returned to the Métis community.
Nova Scotia is suspending the licensed Cape Breton moose hunt for three years due to what the province is calling a “significant drop” in the population.
A well-known childhood prank known as 'nicky nicky nine doors,' or 'ding dong ditch,' has escalated into a more serious game that could lead to charges for some Surrey, B.C. teens.
It's been more than a month since their good friend was seriously hurt in an accident and two teens from Riverview, N.B., are still having a hard time dealing with it.
Halifax bridges have collected thousands of coins from around the world.