The stampede to buy a house before interest rates go up has put a lot of upward pressure on housing prices in the country.
In its latest quarterly report on housing affordability, RBC Royal Bank is saying buyers were ‘walloped’ in the third quarter of the year with prices nationally – when compared to average or median income levels – hitting levels last seen more than 30 years ago.
This, of course, was most noticeable in Toronto and it was even a key issue in the federal election.
But here in Saskatchewan – while we saw a big increase in activity – there was enough slack in the system to absorb the heightened demand without the comparable price hikes.
The Saskatoon market, the bank report says, went into overdrive in Q3 and will set a new record for transaction numbers….surpassing the previous 2014 record of 6,300 in only 10 months. Still, the affordability index is only 27% compared to double that in Toronto and nearly 3-times in Vancouver.
Regina was even more affordable despite a similar spike in sales where the Index sits at a little under 24%, the most attractive in Western Canada.
