On September 9th, RBC Economics released its latest housing report which revealed that Housing Affordability has improved considerably in Saskatchewan since early last year as the RBC Affordability measures improve once more in the 2nd quarter between 0.4% – 1.4%.
Affordability measures retreated since their peak in early last year, as a result, homebuyers have been diving into housing market, helping resales to rebound by more than 50% since March, notes Robert Hogue, senior economist at RBC.
RBC’s Housing Affordability measure for Saskatchewan has improved across all four classes in the second quarter of 2009. Affordability of a detached bungalow in Saskatchewan went down to 40.5%, the standard townhouse is now at 32.6%, the standard condo went down to 25.9% and the standard two-storey home is at 42.8%. All of these numbers are above the long term average.
RBC’s Housing Affordability captures the proportion of pre-tax household income that is needed to service the costs of owning a home.
This means that the percentage will determine how much of a typical household’s monthly pre-tax income is needed to affords homeownership costs. These costs include mortgage payments, utilities and property taxes.
Jeff Markewich
Broker of Record with InfoMarket Group GMAC Real Estate
www.imgrealestate.ca
