Back in 1974, a typical home in Calgary was an 1,100 square-foot bungalow that cost $40,000 – or about 2.8 times the average household income. By 2014, the typical Calgary home had ballooned to 1,700 square-feet and sold for $470,000 – a whopping 6.3 times the average household income.
So who had it easier – the early Boomer generation who bought their first home in 1974, or the Gen Y’s who first bought a home in 2014?
It’s easier to qualify for a mortgage today when you consider the minimum requirement for a down payment is just 5 percent. As for affordability, even with interest rates at 10.7 percent, principle and interest on a 1974 home took up just 29.5 percent of a household’s monthly income compared to nearly 35 percent in 2014.
