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Here’s how many months you would have to save up to buy a house in these B.C. cities

Best to start planning early, the National Bank of Canada has found
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In 2020, 8,497 properties were sold in the Victoria Real Estate Board region – a 17.1 per cent jump from 2019. (Unsplash)

Housing prices have been going up for years in major B.C. cities, but a new report from the National Bank of Canada found it could take hundreds of months to save up for a home in some communities.

In Vancouver, prospective homebuyers would need to earn $230,488 as a household each year in order to afford the cost of a “representative home” in the city. That house, valued at $1,342,184, would still require 409 months of saving up to afford the downpayment. That’s 34 years, assuming this household saved 10 per cent of its income.

For a condo in Vancouver, the numbers were a little better. It would take a household making $127,663 a total of 58 months – nearly five years – to save up for a $633,030 condo.

If 34 years is a little longer than you want to wait to buy a house, you can try Victoria. There, a household making $181,275 would have to save 10 per cent of their income fo 109 months to afford a representative house worth $910,536. That’s just over nine years, compared to 34 for a Vancouver house.

For a condo in Victoria, prospective homebuyers making $102,556 as a household would need to save up for 42 months to afford a $503,072 condo.

ALSO READ: The five most expensive homes for sale in Greater Victoria


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katya.slepian@bpdigital.ca

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