The province of B.C. had the highest percentage of unaffordable homes in the county in 2021, according to a Statistics Canada report published on Wednesday.
The 2021 statistics are due “largely to the number of people paying high rents to live in downtown Vancouver,” StatCan said.
The data pegs B.C.’s unaffordability rate at 25.5 per cent, with Ontario next at 24.2 per cent.
Canada’s homeownership rate fell overall to 66.5 per cent in 2021 from a peak of 69 per cent in 2011.
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StatCan said B.C. posted the third-largest homeownership decline over the decade between 2011 and 2021, dropping to 66.8 per cent from 70 per cent.
The province is also leading in the total number of renter households, with Kelowna seeing a large increase of more than 54 per cent.
StatCan also showed that improvements in household incomes across Canada have reduced core housing needs, but still, almost 1.5 million Canadians live in conditions defined as unsuitable, inadequate or unaffordable.
Concerns with previous StatCan housing reports centered around affordability and availability but recently due to rising interest rates, prices have been cooling down while housing inventory has been up.
With files from Canadian Press.
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