Home Buyers Need $42,000 Per Year For Payments
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MAY 9, 2022
Canadian real estate prices may be slowing now, but the damage got even worse in the year’s first quarter. The Desjardins Affordability Index (DAI) reached the worst level recorded in Q1 2022. Home prices continue to become more overvalued, even as incomes fall.

The Desjardins Affordability Index (DAI)
The DAI is an inverse affordability index designed to assess the risk of a housing correction. If the Index falls below the long-term average, housing is generally overvalued. Overvalued housing is vulnerable to corrections or stagnation. The latter is only a real possibility if it’s not too overvalued or a whole generation is willing to live with insecure shelter for a very long time.

“The housing market can therefore no longer be considered affordable and is unlikely to sustain drastic new price increases,” reads the methodology for the tool.

Canadian Housing Affordability Has Never Been Worse In The DAI
Housing affordability is rapidly eroding and the worst in the DAI’s history. The Index dropped 10.7 points in Q1 2022, hitting the worst affordability ever. Unfortunately the Index only goes back to 2006, but other indexes show how bad things actually are. Affordability hasn’t been this bad in three decades and is likely to get worse.