Canada's housing affordability rises - BNN News Canada's housing affordability rises Andrea Hopkins, Reuters 8:07 AM, E.T. November 22, 2012 Falling home prices and an uptick in household income made Canadian home ownership slightly more affordable in the third quarter, but the longer-term trend is largely unchanged, according to a report by RBC Economics released on Thursday. RBC, Canada's largest bank and a huge mortgage lender, measured affordability as the percentage of monthly pre-tax income for a household needed to cover the typical costs of owning a home, including mortgage payments, utilities and property taxes. By that measure, the cost of owning a home edged down by 1.0 percentage point to 42.0 percent for a detached bungalow, by 1.2 percentage points to 47.8 percent for a two-story home, and by 0.6 percentage point to 28.0 percent for a condominium, the RBC Housing Affordability index showed. "The broad affordability picture has been somew...
