Canada's housing crisis reaches global scale—Calgary seriously unaffordable

Canada is among the world's least affordable housing markets, with four of its six major markets rated severely or impossibly unaffordable, according to the latest Demographia International Housing Affordability report.

The 2026 edition, covering the third quarter of 2025, assessed 96 major markets across eight countries. It ranks housing affordability by median multiple—the median house price divided by median household income. Markets with a median multiple of three or less are considered affordable; 3.1 to four, moderately unaffordable; 4.1 to five, seriously unaffordable; 5.1 to 8.9, severely unaffordable; and nine or higher, impossibly unaffordable.

Vancouver ranks as Canada's least affordable market and the world's second-least, at 92nd globally with an impossibly unaffordable median multiple of 10.8. Toronto comes in second nationally at 81st globally with a severely unaffordable median multiple of 7.6. Montreal is also severely unaffordable at 5.8, while Ottawa and Calgary are both seriously unaffordable, with median multiples of 5 and 4.3 respectively.

"There has been a considerable loss of housing affordability in Canada since the mid-2000s, especially in the Vancouver and Toronto markets," the report notes. Severely unaffordable housing has spread to smaller Ontario markets including Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo, Brantford, London, and Guelph, largely due to people moving out of Toronto seeking cheaper homes.

Edmonton stands out as an exception, tying with Oklahoma City, Rochester, and St. Louis for the third-best housing affordability globally, with a median multiple of 3.6. The report notes this marks "the highest-ranking housing affordability ranking ever achieved by a major market outside the United States in the history of Demographia International Housing Affordability."