Housing affordability gets a large share of the public discourse in this country but sometimes it has hard to determine where the lines are: just what is an affordable house or an affordable city?
It turns out in the last twenty years, the number of cities where home ownership is affordable has fallen by 17. The number where you’ll never own a home is up 2 to 17.
Regina falls into the affordable city group. Saskatoon is the unaffordable category.
The tool used to make this calculation is called WHAM and it is a quick guide for people looking to buy a home and whether or not they can afford that goal in the community where they live.
It was developed by a group called Missing Middle, part of the University of Ottawa by blending the 5-year mortgage rate, the median income for 25 – 54-year old workers and the benchmark house price in each city. There are no deeply affordable cities any more. There used to be 15.
Regina currently ranks number 4 in the nation. Saskatoon is 15th.
