Report

House Price Assessment – Update

Oct 2, 2025

This report provides an update of PBO’s assessment of house prices relative to a household’s capacity to borrow and pay for the purchase of a house in selected Canadian cities.

Highlights

While house prices at the national level remain well below their peak in early 2022, house price affordability has diverged across major Canadian cities.
In Toronto and Hamilton, the gap between average house prices and what an average household can afford has narrowed significantly since early 2022. That said, house prices in Toronto and Hamilton are still well above their estimated affordable levels.
Calgary, Montréal and Québec have seen the largest deterioration in house price affordability since early 2022. However, mortgage debt service ratios in these cities are still low compared to the most exuberant markets.
Although mortgage debt service ratios have declined for average households in Toronto, Vancouver and Victoria, they remain the most financially vulnerable of the census metropolitan areas (CMA) considered in our analysis.