British Columbia – Affordability improves, yet still historically strained
From RBC's Housing Trends & Affordability Report
Housing activity was quite brisk in British Columbia in the second quarter. Home resales (unadjusted for seasonality) rose to a five-year high, while the pace of new listings picked up sufficiently to keep the demand-supply equation in balance. Price pressures remained in check overall, although there was a slight divergence between the single-family home segments (showing relatively stronger price gains) and condo segment (more subdued gains).
Housing affordability improved broadly, with two housing categories (two-storey homes and condos) even reaching their most attractive levels since late 2009.
RBC’s affordability measures fell for all housing types in the second quarter. The drop, in fact, was fairly significant for two-storey homes (2.0 percentage points). The other measures declined by 1.3 percentage points for detached bungalow and by 0.9 percentage points for condo apartments. While BC homebuyers will welcome the improvement in affordability, owning a home at market price in an area such as Vancouver continues to be very difficult for an average household to afford.
