Report: Calgary is the most affordable city in northern North America? Where does Boston fall?
What are the most affordable places to live in the US? The least?
VANCOUVER, B.C. — Calgary, with its 300-plus days of sunshine a year and outdoor recreation, is often underrated. It turns out it’s also the most affordable housing market in northern North America.
Canada’s oil-and-gas city offers generous wages and in expensive houses, making it a standout on a list of 35 US and Canadian cities the Zoocasa real estate website surveyed. The median household in Calgary is likely to earn $30,298 more than they need to buy a median home, according to the report.
For affordability seekers in the United States, the next best choices are Oklahoma City, Columbus, Ohio, and Indianapolis. Or in Canada, Ottawa with its well-paid government jobs and a median home price of $338,872, was the next best option.
The worst places to move for those seeking wages on par with home prices were, unsurprisingly, San Francisco, Vancouver, B.C., and Los Angeles, where residents typically earn between $68,000 to $140,000 less than they need to afford a median home. San Jose, Calif., was fourth, followed by Boston, and New York City. The median home price in Boston is $642,500, according to the report, requiring an income of $106,848. The income gap here? $49,603.
Those figures are based on December 2018 home prices with a 20 percent down payment on a 30-year-fixed loan at 4.5 percent interest, according to the report. Of the 35 cities studied, 10 had income gaps of more than $20,000.
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