Canada Real Estate: The Cost of Buying a Home
How much does it cost to buy a home in Canada? And where are the cheapest cities for housing?
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) recently released their fourth quarter 2012 report on real estate prices in major Canadian metropolitan areas.
Vancouver continues to rank as the nation’s most expensive housing market — by far.
Buying a place to live in Vancouver in 2012 would cost more than double the price of a home in Ottawa, Montreal, or Quebec City.
The cheapest cities? Saint John and Moncton in New Brunswick, along with Trois-Rivières, Quebec. In Moncton, $156,750 would have bought you a home in 2012, a figure that’s expected to hold fairly steady in 2013.
Here’s a summary of the city-by-city results for 20 major metropolitan areas:
Average MLS Sale Prices (Ranked by 2013 Forecasts)
| Metropolitan area | 2011 | 2012 (forecast) | 2013 (forecast) |
| Vancouver, BC | $779,730 | $730,000 | $728,000 |
| Toronto, ON | $466,352 | $500,000 | $498,500 |
| Victoria, BC | $498,300 | $490,000 | $485,000 |
| Calgary, AB | $402,851 | $411,000 | $422,000 |
| Kelowna, BC | $404,756 | $403,000 | $407,000 |
| Ottawa, ON | $344,791 | $353,000 | $356,000 |
| Hamilton, ON | $333,498 | $350,000 | $352,000 |
| Edmonton, AB | $325,595 | $334,000 | $341,000 |
| Montreal, QC | $314,013 | $326,500 | $333,100 |
| Saskatoon, SK | $309,823 | $314,500 | $322,500 |
| Kitchener-Waterloo, ON | $312,305 | $317,500 | $318,000 |
| St. John’s, NL | $268,608 | $280,000 | $285,000 |
| Halifax, NS | $259,060 | $268,000 | $280,000 |
| Quebec City, QC | $247,138 | $260,000 | $270,000 |
| Winnipeg, MB | $241,408 | $255,000 | $265,000 |
| London, ON | $233,731 | $241,500 | $242,950 |
| Charlottetown, PEI | $189,924 | $190,000 | $192,500 |
| Windsor, ON | $166,008 | $171,000 | $172,000 |
| Saint John, NB | $170,354 | $168,000 | $167,500 |
| Trois-Rivières, QC | $156,919 | $159,500 | $161,000 |
For more details, or for information about the housing marketing in other Canadian cities, see the Housing Market Information pages on the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation website.
And if you’re curious to know how housing prices have changed in the past several years, check out our 2010 post, Canadian real estate: The cost of buying a home now.
Vancouver West End skyline photo by Stewart (flickr)
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