Can’t afford Vancouver or Toronto? Well, you can’t afford the burbs, either

theglobeandmail.com
Oct. 15, 2015
By Michael Babad

The Toronto and Vancouver suburbs may have a lot of things going for them, but not when you’re shopping for a home.

When you dig into the latest Royal LePage housing report, you find that costs in those areas are surging, eclipsing those of the city core in some cases.

“As homes in legacy central Toronto neighbourhoods move increasingly out of reach, we are observing that the more affordable areas in Southern Ontario, including the GTA suburbs, are experiencing substantial price appreciation and heightened sales activity levels,” LePage chief executive officer Phil Soper said in releasing the third-quarter report this week.

The areas around Vancouver, a city already hit by what some observers say is an affordability crisis, show the same phenomenon.

“As with Toronto, house price increases in some surrounding areas outpaced those in the city core,” Mr. Soper said.

“A notable difference is that these prices are now in excess of $1-million.”

Several groups report on home sales and prices, and they can differ, although the trend is the same: Toronto and Vancouver are awfully pricey and becoming pricier.

The LePage survey found that home prices in the Toronto area climbed 11.3 per cent in the third quarter from a year earlier, to $612,261. In the city proper, the cost was almost $640,000.

But consider the median price of a two-storey Toronto home, up 17.1 per cent to $961,656. The price of a similar home in nearby Richmond Hill rose 18.6 per cent to $963,561 and in Vaughan by 18 per cent to $842,173.

Vancouver, of course, is sharply high, up 17.3 per cent at more than $1.9-million. The corresponding prices in Richmond and Burnaby surged 23.5 and 20.9 per cent, respectively, to about $1.2-million.

And if you’re interested, a two-storey in North Vancouver is $1.3-million, while those in West Vancouver are going for about $2.8-million.

Affordability in the Toronto and Vancouver areas, Mr. Soper said, is a challenge.