B.C. Housing Affordability

Description

Note: the best method to download the .csv file is to right click on the ‘Access/Download’ link on the box to the right, and then select ‘Save link as’ to download the .csv file directly. This data provides a quarterly overview of housing affordability for homeowners in B.C. and in its major cities (census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations). Housing affordability is measured using the Mortgage Payment Percent of Income (MPPI) which is calculated every quarter based on: • A hypothetical new home buyer earning the median after-tax income for the quarter • The median home sale price in a region • A 25-year variable-rate mortgage • The minimum down payment • The mortgage rate set at the average quarterly prime interest rate By combining home prices, income levels, and mortgage rates, the MPPI produces a full picture of housing affordability over time. A higher MPPI means it is less affordable to buy a home. For more information see: Summary Report: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/data/statistics/economy/building-permits/housing_affordability_bc_update.pdf Technical Note: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/data/statistics/economy/building-permits/housing_affordability_bc_technical_note.pdf Sources of Data: Statistics Canada (StatsCan): Income Data, Prime Rates, Consumer Price Index; BC Assessment Authority (BCA): House Prices

Resources

Name Format Description Link
Housing Affordability for Homeowners in B.C., Quarterly Update PDF https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/aeb68042-2d0a-4c55-8c09-2c700b74a812/resource/04cd3529-886a-4d09-8ac9-c70d361e2f93/download/housing-affordability-in-bc.pdf
Housing Affordability for Renters in B.C., Census Metropolitan Areas Quarterly Data CSV https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/aeb68042-2d0a-4c55-8c09-2c700b74a812/resource/783af514-55ec-469d-ae12-f1ef21810273/download/bc-data-catalogue-cma-rent.csv
Housing Affordability for New Homeowners in B.C., Census Metropolitan Areas Quarterly Data CSV https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/aeb68042-2d0a-4c55-8c09-2c700b74a812/resource/a71e6838-cda1-4acb-adfb-8515c4f9fec9/download/bc-data-catalogue-cma.csv
Housing Affordability for Homeowners in B.C., Quarterly Data CSV https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/aeb68042-2d0a-4c55-8c09-2c700b74a812/resource/d650f406-5f49-4648-85e8-3b5966bdb79c/download/bc-data-catalogue-bc.csv
Housing Affordability for Homeowners in B.C. Technical Note PDF https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/aeb68042-2d0a-4c55-8c09-2c700b74a812/resource/f8153a37-f18d-4d4e-bbe6-77f648bc1f31/download/housing-affordability-tech-note_may-2026-update.pdf
Original metadata (https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca) HTML https://catalogue.data.gov.bc.ca/dataset/b-c-housing-affordability

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