The latest Housing Trends and Affordability Report from RBC Economics found that Canadian housing affordability was down in the first quarter of 2014. Price increases in some of the country’s largest markets have affected home ownership costs and affordability.

But the news was not all bad. According to the RBC’s housing affordability measure, which determines the amount of pre-tax household income required to own a specific category of home, the measure for condos fell 0.1 per cent to 27.9 per cent. This suggests that, unlike other housing types, condominium affordability experienced slight improvements.

Other home types did not fare so well. “Prices for single-family homes in Calgary, Toronto and Vancouver had considerable upward momentum during the first quarter, and led to the strongest annual price gains nationally in nearly two years,” says Craig Wright, senior vice-president and chief economist at RBC. “This stood in the way of any widespread improvement in affordability conditions across Canada.”

Since the first quarter of 2013, home resales declined by 4.8 per cent. However, for the remainder of 2014, RBC predicts that resales will rise modestly to just over 461,000 units, close to the 10-year average of 467,000 units.

“We expect the rest of the spring season to offer a pick-up in housing activity, largely owing to fixed mortgage rates that recently eased to historical lows,” Wright says. “This strength will be short-lived, though, as we believe that there is limited pent-up demand in the first place, and that longer-term interest rates will start to rise by the third quarter of this year.”