Monthly Down Payment Monitor: December 2024

When mortgage rates are all anyone talks about, it can be easy to forget just how important a down payment is to home buying success.

Even when rates were at historic lows, you would have been left out of the feeding frenzy if your down payment savings fell short of the required minimums.

That’s why NerdWallet developed this Monthly Down Payment Monitor: To help Canadian home buyers understand how much they might need to save in order to get approved for a mortgage.

Unlike interest rates, you can control your down payment savings. Once you have an idea of how much you’ll need to put down, you can build a savings strategy around that target amount.

Expect a long, slow process, but every dollar you put away literally gets you closer to owning your own home.

Down payment requirements in Canada: December 2024

The information in the following table is based on Canada’s minimum down payment guidelines and the average sale prices for November 2024 provided by provincial real estate associations.

Province	Average Sale Price November 2024	Minimum Down Payment Required	20% Down Payment
B.C.	$979,221	$72,922	$195,844
Alberta	$500,173	$25,017	$100,035
Saskatchewan	$317,856	$15,893	$63,571
Manitoba	$374,552	$18,728	$74,910
Ontario	$868,067	$61,807	$173,613
Quebec	$521,742	$27,174	$104,348
New Brunswick	$315,388	$15,769	$63,078
Nova Scotia	$442,077	$22,104	$88,415
PEI	$401,343	$20,067	$80,269
Newfoundland	$330,683	$16,534	$66,137

Regional highlight: Manitoba

Manitoba’s housing market doesn’t garner much national attention. It’s too steady and drama-free to steal the headlines away from Ontario, B.C. or Alberta.

Speculators searching for rapid appreciation might give Manitoba a miss, but that helps keep prices affordable in much of the province.

Winnipeg

Average detached home price: $433,968
Minimum down payment required: $21,698

Average condo price: $255,997
Minimum down payment required: $12,800

Brandon

Average residential home price: $327,287
Minimum down payment required: $16,364

Average condo price: $417,371
Minimum down payment required: $20,869

Steinbach

Average sale price: $382,034
Minimum down payment required: $19,102

(Separate sale figures for detached homes and condos aren’t publicly available for Steinbach.)

Down payment savings tip: How a new lending rule might affect your mortgage

Canada’s antiquated insured mortgage limit received an update on December 15, when it increased from $1 million to $1.5 million. Properties priced below the $1.5 million threshold are now eligible for mortgage default insurance and no longer require minimum down payments of 20%.

That sounds great, but it might not be as helpful as you think. Take a look at the following chart to see the huge mortgages that will result from taking advantage of these new lower down payment requirements.

Home Price	Minimum Down Payment	Mortgage Amount	Monthly Mortgage Payment*
$1,000,000	$75,000	$925,000	$5,324
$1,100,000	$85,000	$1,015,000	$5,842
$1,200,000	$95,000	$1,105,000	$6,361
$1,300,000	$105,000	$1,195,000	$6,879
$1,400,000	$115,000	$1,285,000	$7,397

*Based on a 4.5% interest rate and a 25-year amortization.

Those are enormous monthly payments to keep up with. In order to qualify for mortgages of that size, you’ll need to earn a household income in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The only other option will be to boost your down payment.

And that’s where this new rule might fail a lot of home buyers. They might only qualify for these massive mortgages by making down payments closer to 20% — the previous minimum.

The new insured mortgage limit might not get you into a house, but it’s at least useful as a reminder that one of the best ways to secure a mortgage you can afford is by saving the biggest down payment you can.

Average price: This is the total sales volume, calculated in dollars, divided by the number of home sales. A monthly average price can be swayed by a few expensive properties, which makes it a somewhat unreliable metric for describing market trends. If three $10 million homes are sold in one month in Toronto, for example, it would increase the average price, but it wouldn’t necessarily mean all prices are rising.

Benchmark price: Benchmark prices are an interesting alternative to average prices. They’re the prices that buyers are expected to pay for a particular property type. Benchmark prices are determined using the Canadian Real Estate Association’s MLS Home Price Index, which is more of a modelling tool than an analysis of what’s actually happening in the market.

Median price: Median price is essentially the mid-point between the lowest- and highest-priced homes sold over a particular period. Half of the homes sold would be more expensive than the median, the other half would be less. It’s difficult to gauge the market using median price since it leaves you wondering how high home prices might be.