(Montreal) The combined effects of the housing crisis and inflation are evident in the striking portrait of Quebec’s regions unveiled by the Quebec Statistics Institute on Wednesday.
Posted at 12:18 p.m.
Pierre Saint-Arnaud The Canadian Press
The nearly 300-page document touches on a variety of topics, but housing and property issues show a deterioration in the situation of households.
As property prices have risen sharply, the proportion of homeowners has declined in 2021 for the first time since 1971.
The 2023 municipal property valuation lists show a 20.3% increase in average values across Quebec compared to last year. All MRCs recorded an increase, with the largest recorded in the southwestern regions of the province, namely Montérégie, Laurentides-Lanaudière and Outaouais. For the second year in a row, no MRC recorded a decline in house prices.
The significant increase in value, as we will recall, began at the turn of 2020 and 2021 and, unsurprisingly, the housing ratio fell from 61.3% in 2016 to 59.9% in 2021, according to Statistics Canada. This is the first decline in this rate in 50 years.
More tenants in the city
The ownership rate varies enormously from region to region, with it being highest in the Gaspésie – Îles-de-la-Madeleine (73.0%), Lanaudière (72.5%) and Chaudière-Appalaches (71.6%) regions. In contrast, in Montreal it is only 39.6%, which is typical of a highly urbanized environment. All other regions of Quebec are above the Quebec average of 60%, with the exception of Quebec, which is still close at 58.2%.
Nord-du-Québec is an exception outside urban areas, with the lowest homeownership rate in Quebec at 35.6%, but this situation is largely due to the fact that a high proportion of citizens who are First Nations people need housing inhabited, provided by the local government.
Unaffordable even for owners
Housing remains expensive, even too expensive, with nearly one in six households (16%) spending 30% or more of their total income on housing costs, a total of 595,700. For renter households, this share rises to 25% because, although it is little talked about, one in ten owner households also spends more than 30% on housing costs, a share that is likely to rise as mortgage rates rise.
Among other interesting statistics, we note that for the sixth year in a row, Montérégie has the highest per capita disposable income ($35,520) of all administrative regions, closely followed by Montreal ($35,311), the Laurentians ($35,169 dollars) and Capitale-Nationale ($35,163). . Among the five regions where disposable income exceeds that of Quebec as a whole, Abitibi-Témiscamingue ($34,465) is the only one far from major urban centers.
Nord-du-Québec (13%) and Montreal (10.8%) have by far the highest post-tax low income rates. In contrast, the peripheral regions of Montreal, namely Laurentides (5.4%), Lanaudière (5.4%) and Montérégie (5.4%) as well as Côte-Nord (5.6%) and Abitibi-Témiscamingue (5. 8%) the lowest values on low income rates. For reference, in 2020, in Quebec, the threshold for the low-income measure for a family consisting of one parent and two children is $40,282, while for a family consisting of a couple and two children it is $46,514 .
In addition, Quebec’s population aged 25 to 64 was generally more educated in 2021 than in 2016. The proportion of citizens in this age group who earned a certificate, diploma or university degree increased by during this period 4 percentage points (out of 29%). up to 33%).
Other data impacting the labor market this time shows that there are 233,500 job vacancies in Quebec in 2022, an increase of about 29,200 compared to last year. The four regions with the most vacancies are Montreal (72,900), Montérégie (36,800), Capitale-Nationale (26,400) and Laurentides (16,400). The four regions with the fewest vacancies are: Bas-Saint-Laurent (4,400), Abitibi-Témiscamingue (4,100), Côte-Nord and Nord-du-Québec (4,000) and Gaspésie – Îles-de-la-Madeleine (1,500 ). ).