Income gap in parts of Metro Vancouver can be hundreds of thousands of dollars, report finds

Most 'affordable' area is Maple Ridge, where income gap for a house is $35,000

In Vancouver's West Side, you need to earn $450,000/year to buy and maintain a house. Median income there is $65,000

METRO VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – When it comes to affordability in Metro Vancouver, it’s not just about the ridiculously high price of real estate. A new report points out the incomes of locals also have to align with home values.

The report from Zoocasa made a fairly simple calculation, looking at the minimum income required to a buy a house in a neighbourhood versus what the median income actually is.

As you can imagine, Managing Editor Penelope Graham says those figures don’t even come close to matching up, “especially in the more expensive region. The income gap is actually hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

The least-affordable area for detached homes is Vancouver’s West Side, where you need an annual income of $450,000 to buy and maintain a house. The actual median income in that area is $65,000. That’s an income gap of $385,000.

West Vancouver, Richmond, North Vancouver and Burnaby South round out the five least-affordable parts of Metro Vancouver.

The most affordable — relatively — is Maple Ridge where the income gap for a house is only $35,000 annually. North Delta, North Surrey, Ladner and Port Coquitlam are among the the next-most “affordable.”

“Our findings revealed that if you earn the median income in whichever region, you actually cannot afford a house at all anywhere in any Metro Vancouver market,” says Graham.

If you want to buy a condo and make the median income, the report finds there are seven markets that are options for you. They include Maple Ridge, North Delta, Ladner, Port Coquitlam, and North Surrey.

“We found that the houses there were still priced under $1 million and the apartment condos and strata were still generally priced under $500,000,” says Graham.

– With files from Hana Mae Nassar