On Friday RBC Economics released their Housing Trends and Affordability report, which examines the affordability of home ownership in Canadian provinces and major cities.

The report’s housing affordability measures look at the proportion of median pre-tax income that would be required to meet all the expenses of owning a house, including mortgage payments, property taxes and utilities. Essentially, what percentage of provincial median gross income would be required to own and maintain a house?

Alberta was found to be the most affordable province in the country to own a house. Calgary has benefited from a healthy provincial economy and job creation (25,0000 new jobs), as well as rising house resales and housing starts (the number of new houses built).

“In the third quarter, provincial home resales and housing starts picked up some steam, reaching their highest levels in more than a year,” RBC senior economist Robert Hogue told the Calgary Herald. “This renewed demand for Alberta’s housing was partly a result of being an easily affordable market – in fact, the most affordable in Canada.”

As you might expect, Vancouver did not fare well in this report. Toronto was also identified as a major city of growing concern in terms of affordability.

So how much does it cost, on average, to own a house across the country? The Canadian Real Estate Association has compiled averages for October 2011:

National average: $362,899

Yukon: $307,739
Northwest Territories: $450,500
British Columbia: $535,695
Alberta: $356,101
Saskatchewan: $263,907
Manitoba: $234,871
Ontario: $375,115
Quebec: $266,425
New Brunswick: $154,262
Nova Scotia: $202,232
PEI: $139,561
Newfoundland: $249,502

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Blog photo by Dixon Tam, via Flickr.