Mortgage costs for benchmark-priced homes across Canada

Depending on where you live, you might lament – or rejoice in – current home prices. You may be thinking: Man, if I had just found a job in a different city, I might have a better chance to afford a home.

It’s easy to find average or benchmark sale prices for various cities, but it’s hard to determine affordability by looking just at what a home costs; after all, payments are usually amortized over 25 years and paid for monthly.

With that in mind, we’ve taken a look at some of Canada’s major cities and crunched the numbers on what a typical mortgage would cost in each of those cities. For all mortgage affordability calculations, we’ll assume 20 per cent down, amortized over 25 years, and with a five-year fixed rate at the best available rate – currently 3.09 per cent.

For context, the benchmark Canadian home sold for $652,400 in March, according to MLS Home Index Benchmark Price.

Vancouver

Vancouver is beautiful. The ocean, the mountains – it’s a nature lover’s paradise. The home prices, though, mean many buyers will have little money left over for anything but hiking.

The typical home price was $1.08 million in March.

According to ratehub.ca's mortgage payment calculator, the typical Vancouver home would cost $4,144 per month, amortized over 25 years at a current best mortgage rate of 3.09 per cent.

Ouch.

Calgary

Those wishing to purchase a home in Cowtown will have a much easier time, however. The benchmark home price was $430,400 in March.

That would make for a much more manageable mortgage payment of $1,645 per month, assuming a down payment of $86,080 (20 per cent).

Edmonton

Making our way to the heart of oil country, the benchmark home cost $333,500 last month in Edmonton. That would require a mortgage payment of $1,275 per month with a down payment of $66,700.

Toronto

The Big Smoke. Hog Town. TDot. Whatever you call it (I refuse to call it “the 6”), Toronto – or, as the locals pronounce it, Turonno – is home to some of the most out-of-reach home prices in the country.

The benchmark home sold for $760,800 (and we won’t get into the price for a detached home) in the Greater Toronto Area in March.

That would cost a buyer $2,909 per month.

Montreal

Perhaps Canada’s worst-kept secret in terms of real estate prices, Montreal has a benchmark price of $338,200.

So, a home in here would cost a mere $1,293, according to our mortgage calculator – that’s much less than it costs to rent something similar in Toronto or Vancouver.

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