Christiana Chan
If student debt isn’t already something millennials can stress about, being able to purchase a home in two of Canada’s hottest housing markets is deemed to be “dangerously unaffordable,” according to a recent research report by RBC.
Living in Canada remains affordable overall, but for those who want to purchase a single detached home in Vancouver or Toronto, they may want to consider a condo, or moving elsewhere.
“As builders have been building much more condos than single family homes, on the condo side of both markets conditions relatively speaking are much less stressful in terms of affordability,” said Robert Hogue the Senior Economist at the Royal Bank of Canada
Hogue suggests that unless millennials are getting help from their parents in purchasing a house in either Vancouver or Toronto, they are better off purchasing a condo.
“Millennials will come to their own conclusions pretty quickly that if they aspire to home ownership their main option effectively is condos. Prices are much more within their range,” said Hogue.
The average cost for a single detached home in Vancouver is $1,249,500 and Toronto is $760,900, while the average cost for a condo is Vancouver is $467,000 and Toronto is $372,600.
The following chart compares the average cost for single-detached home with the average total income of household across the country.
