Housing Affordability Update

Housing Affordability Update

Canadian housing affordability eroded in the first quarter of 2011, following improvements in the last half of 2010, according to the latest Housing Trends and Affordability Report

 report released by RBC Economics Research. Home price gains in the majority of Canada's key markets were the main driver of the decline in housing affordability, while flat mortgage rates played a neutral role this time. In the previous two quarters, declines in mortgage rates were the principal source of improvement in affordability.

"We expect that the Bank of Canada will soon resume its campaign to normalize its’ interest rate policy, which will adversely impact housing affordability in Canada," said Robert Hogue, senior economist, RBC. "Continued growth in household incomes, however, will likely soften the blow."

The RBC housing affordability measure captures the proportion of pre-tax household income needed to service the costs of owning a specified category of home. During the first quarter of 2011, measures at the national level inched higher thus representing a decrease in affordability.

What does this mean for you?

If you are looking to buy a home in the near future you should consider getting pre- approved for a mortgage.  A pre-approval provided by an mortgage specialist, will guarantee your rates on fixed term mortgages for up to 120 days.  Not only will you know how much you can really afford, but you’ll have our guarantee that if the rates increase in the next 120 days your rate will not. Then give me a call or send me an email

 list of what you are looking for in a home I will get the search started. Things like price range, area, number of bedrooms/bathrooms, age of home, suite(y/n), view(y/n), and basically anything else that would be important to you in a home would help me out immensely.

I am often made aware of homes that are not yet listed or are soon going to be listed for sale a few days before they hit MLS so I can alert you to any deals before the rest of the crowd of buyers are even aware of them…I also hear of deals from many other sources and if they make sense for you I will pass them on. Thanks for your time and I hope to hear from you soon. 

TREVER FLORKO - Realtor
Century 21 Assurance Realty (Kelowna)
Cell: (250) 859-5990
Office: (250) 869-0101
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