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But Vancouver is the most unaffordable city in Canada and third least affordable in the world, a new survey states

Edmonton is the most affordable city for housing in Canada and Calgary is in among the top 10 most affordable cities in the world.

But, according to the 2022 edition of Demographia International Housing Affordability, Vancouver has Canada’s most expensive housing and is the third most unaffordable city out of 90 major urban markets on the planet.

The annual Demopgraphia survey looked at cities in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Singapore and Hong Kong. Of the 92 cities surveyed, Vancouver was only behind Hong Kong and Sydney, Australia. Last year Vancouver was ahead of Sydney.

The survey uses a median multiple to assess affordability. That’s a ratio of income to housing prices, using the local median for both. An affordable city would see a rating of three or below.

Vancouver scored 13.3, up from 13 last year.

Unfortunately for residents of Australia’s biggest city, Sydney saw a much bigger bump and hit 15.3 this year. Hong Kong continues to be well ahead at 23.2. The study’s authors note Vancouver’s market spreads well beyond municipal boundaries.

“Severely unaffordable housing has spread from Vancouver to smaller markets, as Metro Vancouver has shed domestic migration to smaller markets in British Columbia, such as Chilliwack, the Fraser Valley and Kelowna and markets on Vancouver Island,” states the study’s authors.

In Edmonton, Canada’s most affordable city, the current composite home price, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association, is $364,400 and the average annual income is $95,632, based on 2022 data from Average Salary Survey. In Vancouver, the average income is $89,971 this year and the current composite home price is $1,360,500.

None of the major Canadian cities were rated as “affordable,” and, in fact, only one U.S. city (Pittsburgh at 2.7) was deemed affordable by the survey. Edmonton scored a 3.6, which was the fourth best of those surveyed and best in Canada. Both major Albertan cities were deemed moderately affordable; Calgary was second-best in Canada and in the top 10 most affordable at number 4.

Ottawa (5.6) and Montreal (6.1) were close, and both were considered severely unaffordable. Toronto was in the same category, but much closer to Vancouver with a 10.5.

“The markets in Canada have a median multiple of 6.0, up from 4.4 in pre-pandemic 2019,” state the study’s authors. “This increase of 1.6 years in median household income is the largest among included nations in the report.”

The study notes that urban planners have tried to work on unaffordability with limited success.

“Even with densification, housing affordability has deteriorated substantially, for example in Sydney, Auckland, Vancouver, Toronto, San Francisco, Seattle and many other markets,” state the authors.

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Cheaper housing, higher wages lure families east

The sunshine and beauty are assets, but high housing costs are driving some Okanagan residents back to the Prairies.

She’s 32-years old, has three children and a good income, but Andie is moving back to Alberta because it’s just too expensive in Kelowna.

The cost of living, especially housing, is forcing her to go back to Edmonton, where she grew up.

Andie came to the Okanagan in 2011 and pays $2,300 a month for what she describes as a very small, three-bedroom apartment. For a time, she shared it with her mother, to help cover costs.

“I have a full-time job, but I’m expecting. So, once I leave my job my income is going to go down and the cost of renting here is too high for our incomes,” she says.

Andie says what she can find in Edmonton is half the cost and much bigger. She can also stay with relatives while she looks for a new job and home. She adds that the options for school and childcare are also better.

Unfortunately, the move is going to split up her family.

“My oldest is 12. He wants to stay because his friends and school and life is here,” she says. He will be living with his dad.

“My other middle child is 10 and he wants to come with mom. And I have a little five-year-old that’s just with me.”

Andie calls it very stressful. She earns $3,600 a month in Kelowna as a legal assistant but she suspects she will make that or more in Alberta.

Another woman who answered a question on the Kelowna Moms Facebook page about leaving the Okanagan for somewhere more affordable said her family moved to Edmonton earlier this year.

“We moved in January and bought a house for $332,000. Four-bedroom three-bath 2,700 sqft. Daycare for two kids ages three and one is only $400 a month full-time,” Serena Husel Richardson posted. “My mortgage is cheaper than when we were paying for rent…. Honestly the only thing I miss about Kelowna is the nature… but we will just vacation there as we now have wayyyyy more money to do so!”

It’s not just young families that are leaving.

Kaye and Bob Chisholm of Brainy Bee Honey on Valley Road are returning to Saskatchewan after 22 years in the Central Okanagan.

“We’re going to sell this property and we’re going to move back to Saskatoon. We lived in Saskatoon before we moved here,” says Kaye, who acknowledges they’ll have to get used to Prairie winters again. “It is a known factor. It’s not like we’re going to something we don’t know.”

The exodus to the east is being watched by the Calgary Real Estate Board.

Chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie says they are seeing a shift in migration patterns with people starting to move back from other provinces, although fourth-quarter 2021 numbers still showed Alberta losing more people to B.C. She adds that it will be interesting to see if the first-quarter 2022 stats indicate a change in flow.

Calgary home prices fell along with oil prices nearly a decade ago and slipped even further during the pandemic. They have been climbing back up to 2014 levels in recent months. However, the median single-family home price is still well below Kelowna, at $629,000 in April.

“And we just went above $600,000. We were at $550,000 by the end of last year,” she adds.

Condo prices in Alberta’s largest city have not recovered from the pandemic hit.

“They’re still 10 per cent below where they were, unadjusted for inflation, back in 2014. And you put some perspective on that in price, and our condo prices–sort of like the average resale condo is under $300,000,” explains Lurie.

She notes outlying communities like Airdrie and Cochrane are even more affordable than Calgary. The benchmark price in Airdrie is $480,000 and in Cochrane, it’s $530,000.

Edmonton is also a relative bargain. The average April price for a three-bedroom home was $446,000.

Lurie points out that there has been job growth recently, especially in professional services that tend to come with better salaries, including in the tech sector and in the oil and gas industry.

“Coming from the fact we struggled for so long it is a nice change to see that growth. And we’re finally seeing it impact flows. What we were seeing during the pandemic was people were generally leaving to go to other provinces and we’re finally starting to see a turnaround in that,” she says.

She adds that it’s nice to see Alberta with a bit of an advantage after everything it’s been through.

“We don’t mind having them come back,” Lurie says.

Andie sums up what a lot of people in the Central Okanagan might be feeling right now.

“We pay for the sunshine and beauty here, I guess.”

But for her, that price is now too high.

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Bank will be the anchor tenant in last office tower in the ICE District in downtown of Alberta’s capital

Canadian Western Bank (CWB) will move its corporate headquarters into a new 16-storey office tower currently being built in downtown Edmonton.

Chris Fowler, chief executive officer of CWB, told the Real Estate News Exchange the move into the new space of 200,000 square feet will accommodate future growth plans for the financial institution.

CWB will be the anchor tenant in Edmonton’s ICE District’s last available tower that overlooks ICE Plaza. The tower will be named after CWB.

Currently, CWB’s headquarters is in the Canadian Western Bank Place tower at Jasper Avenue and 103rd Street. The company has been in that building since 1995, growing from two floors to 12 floors in about 150,000 square feet.

Fowler said the total bank staff comprises about 2,600, with 1,200 employees in the corporate office in Edmonton.

The tower will include a bank branch on the main floor, a mezzanine lobby and nine floors of CWB office space.

CWB is a full-service financial institution with a focus on the financial needs of businesses and their owners. It was founded 38 years ago by local entrepreneurs and has grown to $1 billion in annual revenue.

ICE District offers many amenities, including restaurants, retail, public plaza, fitness facilities and grocer, 3,000 new underground parking stalls, proximity to LRT, and access to downtown’s pedway network.

Flexible workspaces and fluid design will hallmark the street-level banking centre, second-floor lobby and office floors above, according to CWB.

Designed to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold and WELL Gold Standards, the tower will also maintain a focus on environmentally sustainable building standards.

The vacancy rate for new Class AAA office space in Edmonton’s financial district as of the fourth quarter of 2021 was 11.9 per cent, according to Avison Young, compared to an overall downtown vacancy rate of higher than 17 per cent.

ICE District is the largest mixed-use sports and entertainment district in Canada. ICE District Properties, a mixed-use development surrounding Rogers Place and Ford Hall, is being developed through a Katz Group and ONE Properties joint venture.