EVEN BUYERS EARNING SIX FIGURES ARE CHALLENGED TO SAVE A DOWN PAYMENT

Earning a six-figure annual salary isn’t a fast-track to homeownership, a new report has found. National realty firm Zoocasa recently released a report examining how long it would take someone earning $100,000 a year to save up for a down payment for a home in 25 major Canadian resale real estate markets.

The study used a savings rate of 20 per cent of earnings after-tax to set aside money for a down payment.

It found even in the lowest cost housing market surveyed, Thunder Bay, it would take a buyer one year and two months to save a five per cent down payment — about $17,000 — to purchase the averaged price home worth about $339,000. For someone looking to save for a 20 per cent down payment, roughly $68,000, it would take four years and 10 months.

Calgary buyers earning $100,000, in contrast, would require two years and 11 months to purchase the average priced home at about $654,000, or a down payment of about $41,000. And it would take a buyer nine years and six months to have enough for a 20 per cent down payment of nearly $131,000.

Greater Vancouver had the longest timeline for buyers earning $100,000. To save for the minimum down payment, five per cent on the first $500,000, and 10 per cent for the remainder of the average home price there of about $1.24 million, it would take nearly seven years. The down payment amount is about $99,000. For 20 per cent down, about $248,000, it would take 17 years and three months, or nearly $248,000.

2025-05-22T16:39:03Z