![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.livabl.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/prince-george-bc.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nPhoto: Wikipedia<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Not one of BC\u2019s 20 most populous housing markets is affordable any longer, a recent study from a Canadian real estate brokerage suggests \u2014 but a couple come close.<\/p>\n Zoocasa, which published the study earlier this month, looked at median incomes from Statistics Canada and July benchmark home prices, care of local real estate boards, to calculate a price-to-income ratio for each market.<\/p>\n The top market in terms of affordability was Prince George.<\/p>\n\n For a single-income household, the price-to-income ratio was nine, which is how many years it would take someone earning the median income to buy the average-priced house in Prince George, supposing they saved 100 per cent of their income annually.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, for a single-person household, Prince George is still three times the recommended affordability, so while it is the most affordable option, it is not an affordable option if you\u2019re making the median single income for the province,\u201d Penelope Graham, the managing editor of Zoocasa, tells Livabl.<\/p>\n For a double-income household, the market was closer to the affordability threshold of three times the median income. It would take a median-earning couple four years of saving every penny to purchase an average-priced home in Prince George, where the benchmark price was $347,470 in July.<\/p>\n \u201cWe absolutely are affordable,\u201d says Leah Mayer, vice president of the B.C. Northern Real Estate Board, in an interview about the Prince George market. \u201cWe\u2019re farther away from those [less affordable] markets,\u201d she notes.<\/p>\n The market\u2019s relative affordability has attracted \u201clots\u201d of investors from the Lower Mainland, she tells Livabl.<\/p>\n This is part of what has driven Prince George property values in recent years. But growth has remained \u201cslow-and-steady,\u201d as home prices have typically climbed between 3 to 7 per cent annually, says Mayer.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got lots of industry that drives our prices,\u201d she adds, noting the forestry and mining industries as well as Healthcare provider Northern Health and the University of Northern British Columbia are major employers in the area.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can afford to buy and live instead of just working to pay your mortgage, so it\u2019s a great place,\u201d says Mayer.<\/p>\n To the south, Kamloops \u2014 with a benchmark price of $406,768 \u2014 matched Prince George in terms of the double-income ratio. But it was considerably less affordable for single-income households at a price-to-income ratio of 12.<\/p>\n Vancouver had the worst affordability of any city in the province, according to the study.<\/p>\n The single-income ratio measured a jaw-dropping 32, while the double-income ratio was 14. The benchmark price of a Vancouver home was $1,229,400 last month, while the median one-person household income was roughly that of Prince George.<\/p>\n\r\n SEE ALSO:<\/span>This is how overvalued Vancouver housing is: Economist<\/a><\/strong>\r\n <\/div>\n