Vancouver salaries lagging, out of sync with home prices: report

Real estate | BCBusiness
A home in Vancouver’s affluent Shaughnessy neighbourhood. Yeah, dream on.

Vancouverites looking to buy local real estate may need to think about moving east, to the prairies that is, according to a new report released by the Hay Group

With base salary rate projections for Vancouver continuing to lag behind Alberta and Saskatchewan, average-priced homes in Metro Vancouver will remain unaffordable for average earners this year and next. Unless, of course, you can somehow manage to live on 20 per cent of your paycheque.

That’s according to the Hay Group, an international management consulting firm, which released its annual survey of Canadian salary projections Tuesday.

In Metro Vancouver, an average-priced house in 2014 is $670,300, a mortgage for which would swallow up 80 per cent of the average median household income. 
 
Nationally, the average income increase will remain the same as 2014, at 2.6 per cent, with Alberta and Saskatchewan taking the top spots at 3.1 per cent and 2.9 per cent respectively, thanks in large part to continuing demand for skilled workers in the oil and gas sector.
 
In 2015, Vancouver’s rate is projected to increase to 2.6 per cent from 2.3 per cent, matching the overall rate for B.C.
                       

Province 2015 projection 2014 projection
B.C. 2.6% 2.3%
Alberta 3.1% 3.2%
Saskatchewan 2.9% 3.4%
Manitoba 2.3% 2.6%
Ontario 2.5% 2.5%
Quebec 2.6% 2.6%
Maritimes 2.1% 2.1%
Newfoundland 2.6% 4.0%
Toronto (GTA) 2.5% 2.5%