Paul Martin's Business Update - March 3rd, 2014
Paul Martin's Business Update - March 3rd, 2014
The ability of the average person to purchase a home in this province improved in the last three months of 2013. A quarterly assessment of housing affordability created by RBC Royal Bank says things improved slightly in the fourth quarter of last year in two of the three categories they track. Detached units – both two-story and bungalows, saw an improvement while the affordability of condos slipped slightly.
The bank has created what it calls an index – a ratio that measures the average home cost in a province against average incomes. Saskatchewan is now hovering around the 40 per cent mark for single family units. In other words, it takes roughly 40 per cent of the average pre-tax income to service the cost of home ownership. That is slightly higher than places such as Calgary or Edmonton where incomes are higher but a far cry from Vancouver which sits in the 80 per cent range.
The bank also says that in general terms, the index here has been moving sideways and is not really influencing the decision to buy a house as resales are fairly steady.
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