toronto real estate

This is how much you need to make to afford a home in Toronto right now

It's no secret that the general cost of living in Toronto is prohibitive for most who want to reside here, with the provincial minimum wage falling nearly $10 short per hour of the base living wage to get by in the city.

While rent is getting progressively steeper, owning a home at current prices is simply out of the question for most of us — but how much does a person have to make to actually be able to afford one?

According to the latest data, a lot, especially with rising mortgage rates.

Broker Ratehub.ca found that to be a homeowner in Toronto or Vancouver, the nation's other most notoriously pricey city, one needs to have a household income of at least $220,000 — and that's only if you're able to scrounge up a down payment of 20 per cent, as of June 2022.

It's also a good deal more — $15,750 or 7 per cent — than what the company says your salary would have needed to be given the market just a few months back in March. And when looking at assessments of this value from other sources, it's even more drastic.

Somehow, the difference is actually less than the jump needed to buy a home in Canada overall now (you'll have to earn an extra $18,000 per year to afford the average home in Canada, with a 20 per cent down payment, in June compared to March of this year).

This is even amid a cooling market that is seeing shockingly fewer transactions, lower prices, way more terminated listings and more buyer power vs. previous months and the same time last year.

And, the experts at the broker are not confident that things are going to get better anytime soon given the current economic landscape.

"Home prices will need to drop significantly in order to neutralize the effects that higher mortgage rates have on the stress test," this latest analysis of the market reads.

"Unless this happens, home affordability will continue to be impacted significantly by the current rising rate environment."

Lead photo by

A Great Capture


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