Housing affordability improves in all areas of Canada through third quarter: RBC

RBC Economics released its Housing Trends and Affordability studythis morning and reported improved affordability in all areas of the country. Here’s what they had to say about Saskatchewan, which saw “significant improvement,” albeit slightly less so than the national average.

Spurred in part by a decline in homeownership costs, Saskatchewan home buyers resumed house hunting in recent months with home resales in the province rebounding since August and reversing most of its slide in the first half of this year. The earlier softening of activity, nonetheless, had a linger- ing effect on home prices in the third quarter, which fell across all housing types relative to the second quarter. In turn, this lingering effect, along with lower mortgage rates, contributed to a significant improvement in affordability. The RBC Affordability Measures dropped between 1.8 and 2.2 percentage points, which was the most since early 2009. While lower than they were a year ago, the measures are still modestly above their long-term average, thereby suggesting to us that current market conditions are stretching homebuyers’ budgets to a degree. However, those budgets are likely to be boosted from a strong expected rebound in the provincial economy and, thus, family income this year and next.

Read the full RBC Housing Trends and Affordability study here.

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Norm Fisher
Royal LePage Vidorra