British Columbia : Alberta : Ontario : Quebec : New Brunswick : Nova Scotia : Newfoundland : Saskatchewan
See comparisons table.
A New Brunswick House
The Provinces Compared
One of the major attractions of a move to Canada used to be the cost of housing compared with other western countries.
Newcomers to Canada – particularly from Europe, the UK and Australasia – traditionally enjoyed a double benefit when they bought property in Canada.
These advantages have lessened in recent years, because the Canadian dollar has strengthened, and real estate prices in Canada have risen.
In most provinces, house affordability has worsened in the last few years.
Nevertheless, several of Canada’s provinces still have property prices that rank among the lowest in the western world.
In the table below, the higher the ranking, the more expensive are houses relative to wages.
Canadian House Affordability
(Affordability measured by the number of years of gross average wage needed to buy an average house.)
| Province | Affordability Fourth Quarter 2012 | Affordability Third Quarter 2010 | Affordability Second Quarter 2008 |
|---|---|---|---|
| British Columbia | 11.2 | 11.5 | 11.1 |
| Ontario | 8.0 | 7.2 | 7.0 |
| Alberta | 6.8 | 6.7 | 7.8 |
| Quebec | 6.7 | 6.2 | 5.6 |
| Saskatchewan | 6.1 | 5.3 | 6.1 |
| Manitoba | 6.2 | 5.3 | 5.0 |
| Nova Scotia | 5.1 | 4.8 | 5.4 |
| Newfoundland / Labrador | 6.2 | 5.3 | 4.7 |
| Prince Edward Island | 4.3 | 4.0 | 4.4 |
| New Brunswick | 4.1 | 3.9 | 3.7 |
| Canadian Average | 7.8 | 7.4 | 7.4 |