Nearly 1 in 4 Canadian households live in unaffordable housing, StatCan says

Statistics Canada's latest data reveals that nearly one in four Canadian households, or 23.2 percent, faced unaffordable housing costs in 2024, up from 22 percent the previous year. Unaffordable housing is defined as spending 30 percent or more of household income on shelter costs. According to the report, renters, at 33.7 percent, were more likely than homeowners, at 17.4 percent, to live in unaffordable housing conditions.

In 2024, 36.6 percent of Canadian households were homeowners with a mortgage, while 27.8 percent were homeowners without a mortgage, and 31.3 percent were renters in the private market. Homeowners with mortgages experienced worsened affordability, with 26.1 percent living in unaffordable housing, up from 23.6 percent in 2022. This increase can be attributed to higher mortgage rates following pandemic lows, with 36.2 percent of these homeowners reporting financial difficulty due to mortgage costs.

For renters, those who moved houses within the past two years faced higher costs, with an average monthly rent of $1,740 in 2024, compared to $1,290 for those who had lived in their current home for more than two years. Recent movers were more likely to be unaffordable homeowners, with 40 percent living in unaffordable housing, compared to 32.2 percent among sitting tenants.