Canada\u2019s housing market hit a turning point in spring 2020. Interest rates were slashed, and for the first time in a generation, working from home was actively encouraged, giving families far more flexibility in where they could live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zoocasa analyzed what happened next using CREA average home-price data from May 2020 to February 2026 across eight major cities in Alberta, Ontario, and British Columbia. May 2020 falls just before the pandemic-era price surge, but after it was clear the shock would reshape how and where Canadians live, making it a natural starting point for comparing how much equity buyers built in each market over the following six years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Measured from that turning point, the results flip two decades of real\u2011estate wisdom. Canada\u2019s biggest cities didn\u2019t see as high a return on investment. A buyer who put down $21,150 on the average Calgary home in May 2020 has about $210,000 more equity today, a 994% return on their down payment, while comparable buyers in Toronto and Vancouver needed far larger cheques for far smaller gains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This concept is best illustrated by examining the return generated per $100,000 of invested equity. On that basis, a dollar invested in Calgary worked about three times as hard as a dollar in Toronto, and even more than a dollar in Vancouver, so households taking on million\u2011dollar mortgages in those cities, often with family help, carried bigger payments for weaker payoffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n