Income needed to buy a home in Calgary jumped by over $2,000 in March

With an increasingly expensive real estate market, the cost of buying a home in Calgary has become unaffordable for many locals, and that isn’t expected to change any time soon.

A new report from Ratehub.ca shows that home prices within a one-month period (from February to March 2024) jumped by $12,500.

With such drastic price increases, it goes without saying that home buyers’ incomes will also have to keep up.

ratehub.ca

The report estimates that the income needed to buy a home in the city leapt by $2,180 in the same one-month period.

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Calgarians aren’t alone, though; the vast majority of Canadian cities saw home prices skyrocket across the board. 

“While mortgage rates stayed relatively flat month over month, home prices increased, causing affordability to worsen,” says James Laird, co-CEO of Ratehub.ca and president of CanWise mortgage lender.

“The minimum annual income required to purchase an average home increased in 12 of the 13 cities we looked at because of the increase in home prices.”

While Edmonton has often seen comparatively more affordable house prices, high demand seems to be pushing them out of reach.

In this report, Edmonton’s average home prices were still significantly lower than Calgary’s, at $385,900 – $192,600 below Calgary’s current level of $567,900.

Despite the lower cost, the rapid increase will still require Edmontonians to start earning more to keep up with the $1,880 income change needed to buy into the exploding housing market.