29 November 2010

By the way, since RBC began compiling the numbers in 1985, the average measure for two-storey houses has been 43.3%.
As a result, condos are still the most affordable kind of housing track. It requires only 27.8% of pre-tax income to cover mortgages, taxes and utilities.
The situation in Ontario is a little bit different: the housing affordability level fell by 1.3%-2.4% (and in the second quarter we saw a steady increase). In the same time, existing home sales showed three straight gains (on a seasonally adjusted basis) from August to October. It proves economists’ earlier expectation that the spring-summer activity slowdown was provoked by other reasons, such as the HST implementation and changes in mortgage lending rules. All these factors brought demand forward to the beginning of this year. It seems with the market in balance, today’s softness in home prices may be quite reasonable.