“Severely unaffordable” Toronto Market

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By Elli Davis, January 26, 2010

Toronto by Benson Kua

Yesterday (Monday) a new Demographia International report was released. It examines 272 metropolitan markets in Canada, the US, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

The report claims that the most unaffordable market in the world in 2009 if comparing median housing sale values and median household incomes was Vancouver. It was ranked 9.3 and severely unaffordable group starts at 5.1. Toronto did not achieve a good result either, as it belongs to the same category as Vancouver. Montreal is in a somewhat better - seriously unaffordable category.

The most affordable markets in Canada are in Thunder Bay and Windsor (Ontario) with 2.2 rating. Overall, Canada belongs to the moderately unaffordable group – ranked from 3.1 to 4.0, which is not that bad. To keep costs down the report suggests governments to allow more housing to be built on the outer edges of urban areas.

I’m quite disappointed in the results of Toronto. Seriously, severely unaffordable is the worst possible result. Other parts for Ontario kind of make up for it, but it still is really bad.