Housing affordability in 2019 — Will it get better or worse?

Although the temperature has dialled down in Canada’s hottest housing markets, it keeps on getting less affordable to own a home. In RBC’s latest quarterly Housing Affordability Report, the affordability measure is now at its worst level in Canada since 1990. Rising interest rates and the mortgage stress test are the main causes.
The mortgage stress test, introduced in 2018, requires would-be buyers to qualify at a significantly higher interest rate than their offered rate, thus cont