![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.livabl.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/canadian-housing-market-calgary.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nPhoto: IQRemix\/Flickr<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Canadian real estate company Zoocasa recently looked at homeownership costs in 35 cities across Canada and the US and found that out of all of them, Calgary was most affordable.<\/p>\n In the study<\/a>, Zoocasa ranked the cities based on the spread in US funds between the minimum income required to afford a home in a given city and the actual median income for households residing there.<\/p>\n By that measure, the median household income in Calgary, one of five Canadian cities examined, was $30,128 above the minimum income needed to buy a home, which was $42,885. Cowtown edged out Oklahoma City, where the gap was $26,381.<\/p>\n\n Zoocasa based calculations on the pretense that homebuyers would put forward a 20 percent downpayment and obtain a 30-year mortgage. Median household incomes and median home prices were taken from realtor.com in the US and local Canadian real estate boards dating back to December.<\/p>\n \u201cU.S. affordability was calculated with a fixed mortgage rate of 4.5%, while 3.75% was used for Canadian borrowers, to reflect the average mortgage rate available to an applicant with good credit,\u201d Penelope Graham, managing editor at Zoocasa, says of the methodology.<\/p>\n Canada may lay claim to the most affordable market, but it is also home to the second-least-affordable market: Vancouver.<\/p>\n There, the median income of $49,118 was an eye-popping $74,825 short of what\u2019s needed to break into the expensive residential property market, with its median home price of $869,211 in US funds.<\/p>\n If there\u2019s any solace for Vancouverites it may be that at least they aren\u2019t living in San Francisco, the most unaffordable market of them all.<\/p>\n A median income in San Francisco is $140,003 shy of what\u2019s needed to buy a median-priced home at $1,360,000.<\/p>\n\r\n SEE ALSO:<\/span>Canadian housing affordability has actually improved, and it\u2019s going to get better: report<\/a><\/strong>\r\n <\/div>\n