Income Needed to Afford a Home in 2025

How much income do you need to afford a home in Montreal as of February 2025?

If you are looking to purchase a home in Montreal, it will take an income above six-figures to afford the median priced single-family home. While condo’s have a slightly lower price tag, and require a lower salary, it’s still above the six-figure mark. Here is a breakdown on how much it would cost in different areas of Montreal to pick up a median priced home at the start of 2025.

This chart shows what it would take to afford the median priced single family home in Montreal:

Here is the income needed to afford the median priced condo as of February 2025:

How is the required income needed to purchase a home calculated?

To determine the income needed to afford a home we will start with the February 2025 median home price. The total mortgage amount was calculated as the home price less a 20% down payment as this eliminates the need for CMHC insurance. A 5-year fixed mortgage rate of 6.84% over a 25-year amortization was then used to calculate the mortgage payment. For this home to be considered affordable we applied the 28/36 rule which gave us the annual salary needed to purchase this home in Canada.

Example: How much do you have to make to afford the median priced home of $600,000 in Montreal?

Let’s work through how we arrived at the income of $166,055 above. This is based on a 20% (or $120,000 down payment) which leaves a $480,000 mortgage. Over a 25-year amortization period at a 5-year fixed rate of 6.84% (stress tested at 8.84%) the mortgage payment would be $3,924 / month. We can then add on the expected cost of property tax of $354 / month and heating of $150 / month. This makes the monthly payment $4,428.

Since the CMHC states that no more than 32% of your income should be spend on home expenses, we can divide our monthly mortgage payment by 32% and multiply by tweleve to arrive at the annual income needed. This means that it would take a salary of $166,055 to purchase the median priced home in Montreal where the monthly home expenses do not exceed 32% of your gross salary.

• Annual Income Needed Calculation Breakdown
• $4,428 monthly mortgage payment
• / 32% (28/36 rule)
• = $13,838 monthly income needed
• x 12 months
• = $166,055 annual income needed

If you want to see how much it would take to afford a home under other conditions. Check out our home affordability calculator. This calculator can help you calculate how much home you can afford based on your income, size of down payment, mortgage rates, amortization period and other expenses.

How Much Home Can You Afford on a 100K Salary?

Let’s calculate how much home you can afford if you’re making $100,000 a year in Canada. We will once again use the CMHC guidance of 32% to make sure the mortgage payment is considered affordable.

We can first start by looking at what our monthly payment would be limited to. We can divide our annual $100,000 salary by tweleve which gives us $8,333 / month. Since we should not spend more than 32% on home expenses, our monthly home payment would be limited to $2,667 / month.

Next we can take out monthly property tax of $354 and monthly heating expense of $150 which means that we will have $2,163 left that can be used for the monthly mortgage payment. At a mortgage rate of 5.01% (stress tested at 7.01%) over a 25-year amortization period, a mortgage of $380,438 would be our limit.

From here you can determine the total home you can afford based on your down payment. If you are able to provide a down payment of $50,000 the total home you can afford with a $100,000 salary would be $430,438.