The cost of living in Toronto rose by nearly 20 percent between 2017 and 2022, but this is less than half the increase experienced by housing prices in the city over the past five years, according to a new report.

The real estate site Zoocasa.com analyzed the numbers in a blog post published earlier this week where living expenses were compared with the standard home price in 15 Canadian cities over two five-year periods.

In Toronto, the report showed that the Market Basket Measure (MBM), which represents the costs of goods and services such as food, clothing, and shelter for a median family of two adults and two children, reached $55,262 in 2022.

The MBM, which Statistics Canada refers to as the official poverty measure in a given city, was $46,975 in 2017, meaning the cost of living jumped by 17.6 percent in those five years.

While this may seem high, the standard home price in Toronto increased by 42.8 percent since 2019.

According to Zoocasa, which obtained its real estate data from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), the standard home price in Toronto five years ago was $746,500. Now, in 2024, that number is $1,065,800.

Zoocasa CEO Carrie Lysynko said in the report: “With home prices rising much faster than the cost of living, many Canadians find it increasingly difficult to find affordable housing options.”

The report also notes that although Toronto and Vancouver ranked third and second respectively in terms of MBM in 2022 (Calgary was the highest at $55,771), standard home prices in those cities did not rise “significantly” as they did in smaller cities such as Moncton and Halifax — where home prices rose by 100.1 percent and 82.4 percent respectively since 2019.

Conversely, in two of the fifteen cities surveyed in the study, the standard home price actually lagged behind the MBM.

In Regina, for example, the five-year change in home prices was 8.7 percent, while the change in home prices between 2017 and 2022 was 16.1 percent. Similarly, in Edmonton, the average home price rose by 9.1 percent, while average home prices reached 18 percent.

Lysynko said on this point: “Even in cities where living costs rise, relatively stable home prices represent a unique opportunity for homebuyers to enter the market.”

“This underscores the importance of exploring options outside major urban areas or detached single-family homes for those seeking affordability in today’s market.”