SASKATOON
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Saskatoon Learns New Ways to Make Housing Affordable
e Shelter We are the only city of our size that is a land developer. We’re 50 per cent of the residential market. What that means is that we have a double benefit in that we’re making money towards affordable housing.
In Saskatoon’s sizzling economy, housing affordability takes on a whole new meaning. People who never worried about the cost of a roof over their heads before have begun to realize that affordability isn’t just a problem for the poor or the disadvantaged. A Royal Bank of Canada report on housing affordability published in March notes: “Saskatchewan is the new Alberta — holding the top spot nationwide on growth across all key housing indicators including housing starts, house prices, residential building permits and resale activity.” The “housing affordability measure” is the proportion of median pre-tax household
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income required to service the cost of a mortgage, including principal and interest, property taxes and utilities. A housing affordability measure of 30 per cent is the generally accepted threshold for a family’s ability to afford housing, whether that’s in rent or mortgage payments, including utilities and other costs. Once you’re spending more than 30 per cent on a place to live, you find that you’ve got less for food, clothing, transportation, education and other necessities. Discretionary spending is the first thing to go. The Royal Bank report predicted that even if house prices and mortgage rates were to dip during the summer,
Saskatonians could still expect to pay more than 30 per cent of their incomes on housing. “If you’re spending more than 30 per cent, you’re living in housing that is beginning to put pressure on your life style and is consuming more of your disposable income,” says Alan Wallace, manager of neighbourhood planning for the City of Saskatoon. “You’re becoming ‘house poor’.” When housing prices in Saskatoon were depressed, as they were for about two decades leading up to the economic boom we’re enjoying now, it wasn’t hard to find a place to live that took up less than 30 per cent of
9/24/08, 1:26 AM