Toronto home prices soaring: survey
Posted January 22, 2013 1:39 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Housing in Canada’s biggest city is getting more expensive, with a survey of affordability finding prices in Toronto have soared 50 per cent since 2004.
Demographia, a U.S.-based urban policy consulting firm, analyzed median housing prices in six countries around the world, and found Hong Kong is the most unaffordable city in the world – followed by Canada’s own Vancouver.
The firm then compared the prices to the median income, resulting in a ratio. Vancouver’s housing to income ratio is 9.5, for example, while Hong Kong’s is 13.5.
Toronto’s measure of affordability rose to a reading of 5.9, up from 3.9 in 2004.
Anything 5.1 and over is “severely unaffordable.”
The firm blames soaring prices on the lack of government policies to contain urban sprawl.
As for the most affordable markets, all 20 are in the United States, with Detroit – where the economy is depressed – coming in first.
In Detroit, the median home price is $75,700 and the median income is $49,800, resulting in a 1.5 ratio.
Back in 2004, the survey indicated Canada ranked the most affordable of the six countries surveyed in 2004, but it has seen the greatest deterioration since then, led by large house price increases relative to incomes.
With files from Erin Criger
