Minimum income required to buy a home in Vancouver spikes to shocking amount

If you are thinking about entering Vancouver’s housing market and becoming a homeowner, new data has revealed that unless your income meets this sky-high minimum amount, you’re going to be out of luck.

According to numbers compiled from Ratehub.ca, a Canadian mortgage website, it’s even more bleak in Vancouver than it is in Toronto.

You need to earn at least $246,100 a year to buy a home in Vancouver, with the composite benchmark price for a home being $1,208,000 in August. That figure includes attached homes, as the price for a detached home in Vancouver is way above that amount.

“In the 10 cities we looked at, average home prices were up in four cities and down in six cities. In Vancouver, despite the average home price decreasing by $2,300, affordability worsened due to the rise in mortgage rates, with $1,480 in additional income required to purchase a home,” James Laird, Co-CEO of the company, said.

“Mortgage rates continued to increase slightly from July to August 2023 with the stress test remaining above 8%. As a result, home affordability has worsened in the majority of the cities we looked at,” Laird explained.

Mortgage rates are the average of the Big Five Banks’ five-year fixed rates in August 2023 and July 2023. Average home prices are from the CREA MLS® Home Price Index (HPI). (ratehub.ca)

Toronto is the second worst for income required, at $233,300 a year, followed by BC’s capital city, and then back to Ontario for Hamilton.

What do you think of this study? Let us know in the comments.

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