The downtown Vancouver skyline in the distance beyond houses in Burnaby, B.C., in July, 2023.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press

Steven Globerman is a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute. Joel Emes and Austin Thompson are analysts at the Fraser Institute.

The dream of home ownership is alive, but not well. According to a recent Abacus poll, nearly nine in 10 young Canadians, those aged 18 to 29, aspire to own a home – but a similar share worry about the current state of housing in Canada.

Of course, those worries are justified. According to our new study, in 2023 (the latest year of comparable data), typical homes on the market were unaffordable for families earning the local median income in every major Canadian city. It’s not just Vancouver and Toronto – housing affordability has eroded nationwide.

Aspiring homeowners face two distinct challenges: saving enough for a down payment and keeping up with mortgage payments. Both have become harder in recent years.

For example, in 2014, across 36 of Canada’s largest cities, a 20-per-cent down payment for a typical home – detached house, townhouse or condo – cost the equivalent of 14.1 months, on average, of after-tax income for families earning the median income. By 2023, that figure had grown to 22 months – a 56-per-cent increase. During the same period, a mortgage payment for a typical home increased, as a share of median after-tax family income, from 29.9 per cent to 56.6 per cent.

Analysis: Have homes gotten pricier – or has money lost its value?

No major city has been spared. Between 2014 and 2023, the price of a typical home rose faster than the median after-tax family income in 32 out of 36 of Canada’s largest cities. And in........

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