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KEEPING UP WITH
OUR NEIGHBORS TO
THE NORTH
Are housing costs more overwhelming
in Canada or in the U.S.? A recent study by
Point2Homes analyzed the evolution of the
housing markets in these countries that share
a border to assess their current status.
For the study, Point2Homes extracted
historical data on market trends and
examined numbers from 2008 and 2018. ey
looked at key metrics including average home
price, rent, homeownership rates, changes
in the countries' median incomes, and the
countries' evolution on the affordability scale
for a side-by-side comparison.
e study found that while the average
home price in the U.S increased at a much
slower rate of 24 percent, the average
Canadian had to dish out 56 percent more to
buy a home and 25 percent more to rent one.
Median incomes for Canadians also rose at
a slower pace than their U.S. counterparts
at 15 percent, compared with 18 percent for
American homebuyers.
According to the study, a decade after the
housing crisis in the U.S. some analysts have
claimed that Canada faces a similar scenario
where household debt currently exceeds 100
percent of GDP.
Looking at historical U.S. housing
data, the study found that in the U.S.,
homeownership rates reached a peak towards
the end of 2004, when the percentage of
homeowners settled at 69.2 percent, only to
start decreasing in 2007. By 2015, the share of
homeowners in the U.S. fell to 62.9 percent,
a level that hasn't been seen since 1965, when
data gathering was just starting. After three
years of recovery, the share of homeowners in
the U.S. is currently pegged at 64.2 percent.
Comparatively, homeownership rates in
Canada rose at a steady pace for more than
four decades hitting an all-time high of 69
percent in 2011, but the percentage has dipped
to 67.8 percent following the economic
downturn in the country from 2014. Despite
these declines, home prices in Canada
increased twice as fast as the U.S.
"Due to a staggering 56 percent jump
since 2008, Canada's average home price
went from $304,663 CAD to $475,591 CAD in
just 10 years," the study revealed. "e U.S.
market's increases have been more contained:
after a 24 percent increase, the average home
price went from $245,200 in 2008 to $303,200
in 2018."
