Housing Affordability in Anglophone Countries

The 16th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey: 2020 analyzed affordability in 7 Anglophone countries and Hong Kong. Among this sample, the housing markets with the least affordable real estate prices are Hong Kong, Vancouver, and Sydney. The top three housing markets with the most affordable real estate prices based on major housing markets are Rochester, New York, Cleveland, Ohio, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. This survey was performed by Demographia, a global analysis firm.^[1]

Methodology

The prices are based on data from the third quarter of 2019. The housing markets ranked are located in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, United Kingdom, and the United States. The report also includes special coverage on Russia.

The housing markets are ranked on middle income housing affordability, which uses the "median multiple". This was calculated by taking the median house price divided by the median gross pre-tax household income of the housing market. The median multiple is used widely for analyzing housing markets and is recommended by the World Bank and the United Nations. It has also been used by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.

Demographia uses housing affordability ratings to categorize each housing market's median multiple.^[1]

Demographia housing affordability ratings^[1]
Housing affordability rating	Median multiple
Affordable	3.0 and under
Moderately unaffordable	3.1 to 4.0
Seriously unaffordable	4.1 to 5.0
Severely unaffordable	5.1 and over

List

The report is split into two rankings, one for major housing markets, and one for all housing markets. The list below shows the rankings from the most unaffordable housing market to the most affordable housing market for the major housing markets. The list contains 92 housing markets.^[1]

Rank (3rd quarter 2019)	Housing market	Country/territory	Median multiple
1	Hong Kong	Hong Kong	20.8
2	Vancouver	Canada	11.9
3	Sydney	Australia	11.0
4	Melbourne	Australia	9.5
5	Los Angeles	United States	9.0
6	Toronto	Canada	8.6
6	Auckland	New Zealand	8.6
8	San Jose, California	United States	8.5
9	San Francisco	United States	8.4
10	London (Greater London Authority)	United Kingdom	8.2
11	Honolulu	United States	8.0
12	San Diego	United States	7.3
13	Bournemouth and Dorset	United Kingdom	6.9
13	Adelaide	Australia	6.9
15	London Exurbs (east and southeast England)	United Kingdom	6.6
16	Bristol and Bath	United Kingdom	6.5
17	Brisbane	Australia	6.3
18	Plymouth and Devon	United Kingdom	6.0
18	Perth	Australia	6.0
20	Swindon and Wiltshire	United Kingdom	5.8
21	Northampton and Northamptonshire	United Kingdom	5.7
22	Seattle	United States	5.5
23	Riverside-San Bernardino	United States	5.4
23	New York metropolitan area	United States	5.4
23	Miami	United States	5.4
23	Leicester and Leicestershire	United Kingdom	5.4
27	Denver	United States	5.3
27	Greater Boston	United States	5.3
29	Sacramento, California	United States	5.2
29	Fresno, California	United States	5.2
31	Portland metropolitan area	United States	5.1
32	Las Vegas	United States	5.0
32	Birmingham and West Midlands	United Kingdom	5.0
34	Montreal	Canada	4.7
34	Middlesbrough and Durham, England	United Kingdom	4.7
34	Dublin	Ireland	4.7
37	Singapore	Singapore	4.6
37	Salt Lake City	United States	4.6
37	Manchester and Greater Manchester	United Kingdom	4.6
37	Hull and Humber	United Kingdom	4.6
41	Nottingham and Nottinghamshire	United Kingdom	4.5
41	Newcastle upon Tyne and Tyneside	United Kingdom	4.5
43	Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire	United Kingdom	4.4
43	Providence metropolitan area	United States	4.4
43	Orlando	United States	4.4
46	New Orleans	United States	4.3
46	Derby and Derbyshire	United Kingdom	4.3
48	Phoenix, Arizona	United States	4.2
48	Leeds and West Yorkshire	United Kingdom	4.2
50	Tucson, Arizona	United States	4.1
50	Tampa Bay area	United States	4.1
50	Ottawa-Gatineau	Canada	4.1