The most affordable Canadian cities of 2024 have been revealed
Wondering what the most affordable cities in Canada are? Unfortunately, aren’t we all?
Canada’s housing and cost-of-living crisis is getting out of hand, and people in major cities are ready to make sacrifices to live somewhere more affordable.
“There’s an old saying in real estate, ‘drive until you qualify.’ As housing affordability continues to deteriorate and Canadians face increasingly higher barriers to entry when buying a home, this adage is becoming more of a reality,” said Karen Yolevski, COO at Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd.
“Many aspiring homeowners in the country’s largest and priciest urban centres are seriously considering relocating to less expensive cities in order to get a foot on the property ladder,” she added.
Royal LePage recently surveyed Canadians living in the greater regions of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, and noted that 50% of respondents said they would consider buying a property in one of Canada’s most affordable Canadian cities if they could find a job or work remotely.
“Among renters in these regions, 60% say they’d be willing to relocate, while 45% of current
homeowners say they would consider it,” experts noted.
After thoroughly studying the real estate market, Royal LePage has released a list of Canada’s 15 most affordable cities.
These cities’ affordability factor is based on the percentage of income required to service a monthly mortgage payment, using Statistics Canada 2022 provincial median total income of economic families and persons not in an economic family, and city-level aggregate home price data from Royal LePage’s Q1 2024 House Price Survey.
“The mortgage calculation is based on a three-year fixed-term loan at 5.71%, amortized over 25 years with a 20% down payment,” Royal LePage said.
The lower a city’s affordability factor percentage, the more affordable it is.
Here are the most affordable cities in Canada, split provincially:
Ontario
Calculations determined that Thunder Bay, Ontario, is the cheapest city to live in nationwide, with an affordability factor of 22.2%. The aggregate home price in Q1 2024 was less than $300,000 in Thunder Bay.
Windsor-Essex, the only other Ontario city in the ranking, stands 13th with an affordability factor of 36.4%.
New Brunswick
The second most affordable city is Saint John, New Brunswick, where monthly mortgage payments are lower than in any other city — $1,400. The affordability factor percentage here is 25.1%, just three points above Thunder Bay.
New Brunswick’s Fredericton is the 11th cheapest city, with an aggregate home price of $342,200 in Q1 and an affordability factor of 32%.
Alberta
Red Deer and Edmonton are the only two Alberta cities to make the list, and they’re ranked #3 and #5, respectively.
In Red Deer, the aggregate home price in Q1 was $392,900. With a monthly mortgage payment of about $2,050, the affordability factor is a still-sweet 25.7%.
According to Royal LePage’s study, Edmonton is the top-ranking choice for Greater Toronto and Greater Vancouver residents to move to.
Quebec
Quebec has the most cities on the affordability list: Trois-Rivières (#4), Quebec City (#8), Sherbrooke (#9), and Gatineau (#15).
Trois-Rivières has the lowest monthly mortgage payment in the province, at $1,771.21, and Gatineau has the highest, at $2,288.
Quebec City and Sherbrooke are the same in terms of the affordability factor — 30.8%. The only real difference is the aggregate home price, which is just $100 higher in Sherbrooke than in Quebec City.
British Columbia
It doesn’t look like any BC city can be called “affordable” anymore. None appeared on the list.
Per Royal LePage’s resident survey, people living in Greater Vancouver are “the most likely to want to stay put,” with 46% saying they wouldn’t consider moving.
Saskatchewan
The capital city of Regina is the sixth most affordable city in Canada, with a 29.1% affordability factor.
Monthly mortgage payments were calculated to be around $1,981 in Regina but jumped when it came to Saskatoon at #12 ($2,220.40).
Newfoundland and Labrador
St. John’s, not to be confused with New Brunswick’s Saint John, is Canada’s seventh most affordable city and the only Newfoundland and Labrador spot in Royal LePage’s ranking.
With a provincial median total household income of $71,200 in 2022 and monthly mortgage payments at $1,786.28, the city’s affordability factor is determined to be 30.1%.
Manitoba
In 2022, Winnipeg’s provincial median total household income was $77,000.
Given a Q1 aggregate home price of $390,900 and a $2,039.48 monthly mortgage payment, Manitoba’s capital is #10 among the 15 most affordable cities in Canada.
Prince Edward Island
The largest city in Prince Edward Island is also its most affordable one.
Charlottetown ranked #14 countrywide, with an affordability factor of 36.6%.
Would you move to one of these affordable cities if you got a job there? Let us know in the comments, or email us your thoughts at [email protected].