Author: Kirsten Mason

The Demographia 7th Annual International Housing Affordability Survey for 2011 is out. It rates metropolitan markets for affordability of the housing in each market. Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States and China (Hong Kong) are all discussed. I have included a portion of the report below. You can access the full report by clicking the link at the bottom of this post.

The 7th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey expands coverage to 325 markets in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. This edition marks the addition of Hong Kong. The Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey employs the ―Median Multiple‖ (median house price divided by gross annual median household income) to rate housing affordability(see chart ES-1 on page 7) . The Median Multiple is widely used for evaluating urban markets, and has been recommended by the World Bank and the United Nations Harvard University Joint Center on Housing.

Housing Affordability in 2010

Housing affordability was little changed in 2010, with the most affordable markets being in the United States and Canada. The United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand continue to experience pervasive unaffordability.

All Markets

Among all 325 markets surveyed, there were 115 affordable markets, 106 in the United States and 9 in Canada. There were 94 moderately unaffordable markets, 74 in the United States, 17 in Canada and 3 in Ireland. There were 42 seriously unaffordable markets and 74 severely unaffordable markets. Australia had 27 severely unaffordable markets, followed by the United Kingdom with 21 and the United States with 15. Canada had 6 severely unaffordable markets, while New Zealand had 4. China’s one included market, Hong Kong, was also severely unaffordable.

Vancouver remains one of the most Severely Unaffordable markets with only Sydney, Australia and Hong Kong being more unaffordable.

Click here to read the full report.

I found this audio track on the NPR (National Public Radio: United States). They discuss the Canadian economic position versus the American. It is a short three minute piece. This was posted by the NPR on December 11th, 2011. I have included the short introduction below and the link to the broadcast.

America’s biggest trade partner, Canada, sailed through the economic downturn almost unscathed, with low unemployment, no mortgage crisis and not a single major bank failure. As part of WBEZ’s Front and Center series, Brian Mann reports on how Canada emerged as one of the world’s most stable and prosperous economies. Link to Audio

Link to article