But rising interest rates could affect purchasers...The Bank of Canada held its interest rate steady this week, but analysts suggest future mortgage rate hikes will be the biggest factor when it comes to assessing how affordable homeownership is for Canadians.
“Our affordability measure looks at the cost of owning a home at current market prices,” says Robert Hogue, senior economist at RBC Economics Research. “We calculate mortgage payments … utilities and property taxes. [The affordability measure] is all those costs as a percentage of the median household income, so the higher the measure, the less affordable is housing or homeownership.”
Source: The Vancouver Sun
By Helen Morris, National Post March 7, 2011
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