r/Lethbridge • u/AdLanky6897 • Jul 08 '26
Question Lethbridge named as most affordable city in Canada to buy a house. Yes or No?
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u/EXSource Jul 08 '26
Maybe.
But that's not the real problem.
It might be the most affordable place to buy a house but that doesn't mean that people can afford to buy a house.
Those are two different things, so to me, it's irrelevant. Literally does not matter unless the second thing gets fixed too.
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u/kmsiever Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
The funny thing about lists like these is that they compare only house prices in cities. They do not compare other costs of living, wages, or other factors that would affect whether someone can actually afford to buy a house. It is a misleading stat.
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u/unapologeticopinions Jul 09 '26
The year I moved here we were rated #1 for buying a home but last place for finding a job 😂
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u/kmsiever Jul 09 '26
Sounds about right. I just got a new job after 3 years of looking, and it ended up being a remote job out of Ontario.
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u/bardownprophet1991 Jul 09 '26
Guess it depends on what business you’re in. As a tradesperson in this town I got to be picky about who I work for. If I lost my job today I’d have three offers tomorrow.
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u/joecarter93 Jul 08 '26
Here’s a link to the actual report:
Some caveats with it:
- It compares the percent of an average household’s monthly income would be required to service a mortgage payment. i.e. average wage to average purchase prices.
-It does not include other expenses like energy, taxes, insurance etc.
- It only includes larger cities and provincial capitals, so it does not include places like Piapot, Saskatchewan or even smaller places like Medicine Hat. It looks to be based only on cites in Census Metropolitan Areas, (perhaps?) so smaller places that are not big enough to be cites in CMAs are not included.
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u/beefglob Jul 08 '26
Affordable until the real estate guys "discover" it like they did to Calgary during the "we love immigrants but not those ones" Alberta calling ads
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u/godver3 Jul 08 '26
Can't stand the negativity. Great place to live.
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u/UnbreadedTouchdown Jul 09 '26
Doesn’t change the fact that wages are suppressed in Lethbridge and the surrounding area, especially if you’re not in a union or a field that has competition.
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u/JanineL2022 Jul 08 '26
I love Lethbridge! Beautiful City and great location. However, if I understand your comment correctly, I do agree on the negativity. There seems to be more of it here than there should be.
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u/godver3 Jul 08 '26
Yes - what I was trying to say was “I wish people wouldn’t be so negative about this wonderful city that I love living in”
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u/TheChaseLemon Jul 08 '26
I agree. Been living here 2 years now and family and I love it. Came from Vancouver, mortgage free now too.
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u/Evening_Let_2930 Jul 12 '26
Moving from out of province, tons of people are angry here and not as friendly. Love the weather and it is cheap but jobs suck here too.
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u/BronRugby Jul 08 '26
It is okay now, but was great 15 years ago.
Used to be able to leave a vehicle downtown over night without issue. Now its broken into everytime.
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u/Demon2377 Jul 08 '26
For rental properties? Doubtful. I have lived in Edmonton for almost 10 years, and yes I was born and raised in Lethbridge. I started noticing a difference in the rental costs in between the cities. Edmonton for rent is a little more affordable, and I think a lot of that is due to Edmonton bucking a trend.
So the video, and I took it as “home ownership” in and around Lethbridge. Average house prices in certain neighbourhoods like Westminster Village are the lowest in the city. Copperwood is one of the more expensive.
To me the video came across as being a little misleading.
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u/Previous_Search3122 Jul 08 '26
I disagree. While Lethbridge is still very affordable and up there with being the most affordable. However they used provincial income averages to come to this conclusion. Lethbridge is below the Provincial Income Average so the results are skewed.
While wages are climbing with more manufacturing and production coming to the area, we are still very heavy in the farming, ranching, as well as hospitality industries which bring the averages down.
Building more housing would help too and not detached homes or even semi-detached homes. Lethbridge needs some apartment; apartments that are privately owned and more than 5 stories tall. People who live here don't want to see those types of buildings, however the more of those that are built then the lower rent will be and the lower the barrier to entry for home ownership.
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u/Severe_Setting86 Jul 08 '26
Taxes are over the top here. So perhaps cheaper housing but if you’re paying $500 a month for property tax, affordable housing doesn’t work anymore!
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u/Evening_Let_2930 Jul 12 '26
Taxes are over the top here
Because the provincial government keeps cutting funding
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u/Least_Raccoon5256 Jul 08 '26
I’m nosy and look at listings. There isn’t any way this is true. The same house model I bought for 300k in 2018 (new listing is minus finished basement (I have 2 extra bedrooms, full bath, laundry room, and bonus room), detached garage, fenced yard, and upgraded interior) is listed for 415k. Both 2014 builds. Way less for way more. It’s wild.
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u/BKNOWSB Jul 08 '26
Ok but what about in cities comparable to lethbridge. Is it cheaper to buy a house in Medicine Hat or Red Deer?
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u/cooterplug89 Jul 08 '26
So you are not taking in the fact home prices have risen since 2018... all across major cities.
Same house in calgary probably went up a similar percentage, maybe even more.
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u/foxhelp Jul 08 '26
My apartment (townhouse) has been purchases by a Vancouver chinese holding company for over the $360k inflated market value (110k more than the city assessed value).
They have now given me notice of a 50% rent increase.
Very wild! This really seems like a market speculation driving costs.
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u/Riajnor Jul 08 '26
I was in new zealand for awhile and looked at buying a place off the plans, at the beginning of 2016. Decided against it and was kicking myself because by the time covid hit that place was on the market for literally double what i would have paid. Housing inflation is everywhere, a lot of it driven (in my opinion) by cock sucker asset firms looking to milk us for all we’re worth
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u/ApprehensiveBake2597 Jul 08 '26
This was one of the major factors that drove us to move here... the ability to buy a single family home where we are from was a pipedream that would never come to fruition.
That being said, we did buy a sweet little house in the south, but our property tax is triple what it was in BC, and there is no Home Owners Grant here which was tough to swallow.
I will say, basically every other expense here (besides insurance - WTF!) is more affordable than the lower mainland. AND the laid back lifestyle compared to the hustle of the Fraser Valley has made this move more than perfect!
Lethbridge, alike any place you live, is what you make it. We are just so thankful to be back in Alberta, even though Lethbridge is drastically different from where we came from (and I sure miss those mountain views and lush forests from back home) we are still exploring all the unique things that make Southern Alberta beautiful ♥
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u/InvestigatorWide7649 Jul 08 '26
It's more affordable than other cities in Alberta for sure, but I wouldn't say it's the cheapest in Canada. I lived in a very similar sized city in Northern Ontario, and prices have dropped significantly back home, where here they've basically plateaued. Property tax is also significantly lower back home, and insurance costs a fraction of what it does here.
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u/Fresh-Trick2204 Jul 08 '26
Not sure what the median household income would be for the Lethbridge area. Maybe a cheaper price to pay for a house but I see Lethbridge a little low on the salary scale.
Great place for folks from BC to sell for a mint and settle in this area.
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u/acr2018_1 Jul 09 '26
Being from Ontario and just getting back from a week stay in beautiful Lethbridge, I can say that comparatively the house prices are cheaper, but, the gas prices (surprisingly to me) were more expensive than where I am (close but slightly higher) and the grocery prices were a lot more expensive. So the cost of living, if you included everything, might very well equal out (I say might, I don’t know about other costs like hydro, water, property taxes, etc.)
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u/Brokendownyota Jul 09 '26
Provincial average for income, which is not reflective of Lethbridge. Some random number for housing that is well below reality. Insurance, property taxes, and utilities, 3 ways we get absolutely screwed, not included.
And the job market here is insanely bad.
Sure, everyone else's numbers might also be wrong and the ranking may stand, but using those numbers, well, let's just say I'm skeptical.
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u/2009Ninjas Jul 08 '26
Not anymore. Maybe 15 years ago.
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u/jacafeez Jul 08 '26
Yeah housing prices have pretty much doubled in the last 15 years. My neighbours condo sold for double what he got it for.
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u/evebow1167 Jul 09 '26
If the insanely high property taxes and utilities were factored in lethbridge would definitely not be top of the list
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u/Justwhytry Jul 09 '26
Resident of methbridge here, FYI the property taxes on a 5 bedroom split level are $5,900 a year. That was intentionally left out of the calculation
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u/bardownprophet1991 Jul 09 '26
Bought my house three years ago in September. I came from BC so I was very lucky. The city I moved from at the time had 1 bedroom shacks in desolate neighbourhoods for half a million - barely liveable. I bought my house on the south side of lethbridge in a beautiful neighbourhood for $275k. 4 bedroom bi-level split on a double lot with a 5000 square foot backyard. I realize it’s gotten worse since then but comparatively, Lethbridge is very affordable.
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u/Plastic_Snow5137 Jul 20 '26
Did they also rank the property tax? It's almost 45% higher than Calgary
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u/thegreenfaeries Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
In terms of the 5 cities in Alberta - Edmonton, Calgary, Ft MacMurray, Red Deer and Lethbridge - I feel confident Lethbridge will continue to be the most affordable for a while out of that bunch.
And Lethbridge only passed 100k population recently. It's a small city.
I'm curious which other Canadian cities came close.
Edit: change fort Macleod to ft MacMurray - oops! Edit 2: Alberta only has 4 incorporated cities, so Ft McMurray shouldn't technically have been included on my list.
Also I'm not sure what's so controversial that I've said? I get the article is about Canada, but I saw it in the Lethbridge sub so I responded with that context. Small cities like Lethbridge are generally more affordable than larger cities. That doesn't mean it's affordable. Just more so than the others in it's category.
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u/kmsiever Jul 08 '26
If you think Lethbridge is a small city, I wonder what you call Brooks.
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u/thegreenfaeries Jul 08 '26
I'm not sure what you mean, can you clarify?
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u/kmsiever Jul 08 '26
Brooks is a city with a population of 15,000. If you think 115,000 is small, I wonder what word you use to describe 15,000.
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u/thegreenfaeries Jul 08 '26
I guess I used the term city imprecisely. After some more googling the term I should have used was "urban hub". Idk I'm not a city planner. Either way, Brooks wasn't included in the comparison list that the post is referencing so it really doesn't matter what I call Brooks. Legally, it's a city. I guess I'd call it a really small city?
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u/Shame-game Jul 08 '26
I think of it as an abattoir with a suburb. Nice place to live if you don’t have a nose.
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u/Goddemmitt Jul 08 '26
Gotta wonder how much of this is realtor/landlord driven... Lethbridge is less expensive than a lot of places, but it still isn't "cheap".