Canada's housing market became more affordable this year, but Calgary was not among those markets where buyers saw improving conditions, with one exception. A new report from National Bank of Canada examining first quarter data for the year (ending March 31) found larger markets saw improvements in affordability, but Calgary became slightly less affordable.
"It hasn't seen the same gains in affordability other markets have seen," says Kyle Dahms, senior economist with National Bank.
Yet condominium apartments did become substantially more affordable in Calgary — just not as dramatically as other large markets in Canada.
Calgary Home Prices and Affordability Trends
In aggregate, the median price of a Calgary home at the end of the first three months of this year was $670,543, up one per cent from the previous quarter. It also represented about a one per cent year-over-year bump.
But condominiums stood out. That said, the housing type had a median price of $386,762, flat year over year, and up about one per cent from the previous quarter.
Yet the report shows that affordability for condominiums has improved over the last 25 years. Today, the monthly mortgage payment for the median price of a home, as a percentage of median income in Calgary for a condominium, was nearly 23 per cent. In 2000, it was nearly 27 per cent of median income.
Comparison with Single-Family Homes
For single-family homes in Calgary, by comparison, the percentage of income needed for a mortgage was about 43 per cent this past quarter versus about 39 per cent in 2000, the report notes.
That is still less of an affordability decline than Toronto even for its slumping condo market. There, the mortgage payment for the median priced condominium was about 41 per cent this year versus about 34 per cent in 2000.
That's despite the median price of a condominium falling nearly 10 per cent year over year to about $633,000. Vancouver saw similar numbers for its condominium market.
"The Toronto and Vancouver markets have seen the biggest corrections for condos," Dahms says. "And condos are more affordable on a relative basis than single family homes."
Even single-family detached homes in both large cities have seen affordability improvements. In Vancouver, the median price was about $1.6 million at the end of the first quarter, down about six per cent from the same period in 2025. The mortgage payment would be about 110 per cent of median income, up from about 86 per cent in 2000.
Despite Calgary lagging bigger cities for recent affordability gains — which National Bank measures by price changes, income gains and the average mortgage interest rates — the city remains very affordable.
