68% of Canadians Don't Know Their Housing Costs: How to Find Yours

Those who do know their number mostly say housing has become unaffordable, which may be why so many people avoid looking. Here is how to get your real monthly figure in one sitting this week, using the bills you already have.

1. Pull the last 12 months of bank and credit card statements and highlight every housing line. That means mortgage payment, property tax, strata fees, home insurance, BC Hydro, FortisBC gas, your city utility bill, and anything you spent fixing the place. Use a full year so you catch the annual and seasonal hits, including winter heating, the tax bill and the insurance renewal.
2. Find your property tax notice and confirm you claimed the BC Home Owner Grant. It is not automatic. You claim it each year, and if your assessed value is over the provincial threshold, the grant shrinks or disappears. Then look at how fast your levy is climbing. Abbotsford approved a property tax increase of 5.12% for 2024, so don't use an old notice as next year's estimate.
3. Check whether you qualify for BC's property tax deferment program. Owners 55 and up, and families supporting a child under 18, can defer their annual tax against home equity. Most people eligible for it have never heard of it. If cash flow is tight, it changes your monthly number without touching your mortgage.
4. Ask your strata manager for the latest budget, AGM minutes, depreciation report and insurance renewal. Strata insurance premiums in BC have been rising fast, especially in older buildings, and that flows straight into your fees. Read the minutes for any talk of roofs, envelopes or elevators, because that is where special levies start.
5. Call your own condo insurer and ask how much of the strata deductible your policy covers. If a water leak starts in your unit, the strata can pass its deductible to you. Make sure your policy covers that amount in full.
6. Add a monthly maintenance line even if you spent little last year. A quick check is to add 20% on top of your mortgage payment to estimate true carrying cost. If your actual spending came in well under that, you were probably deferring repairs.
7. Divide your total by your gross monthly income. The old 30% guideline is hard to meet in the Fraser Valley, so treat it as a reference point. Lenders run their own version, called gross debt service. It counts principal, interest, property tax, heat and half your strata fee. Knowing your ratio before a renewal or refinance tells you how much room you actually have.
8. Recalculate your payment at your current rate plus two percentage points. That mirrors the cushion built into the federal stress test, and it shows how your budget holds up if your renewal comes in higher. Run this a year or more before your maturity date, while you still have options.
9. If you own a rental, recalculate it the way a lender will. Lenders typically credit only 50% to 80% of gross rental income toward qualification, not the full rent. Add vacancy, strata bylaws on rentals, and BC's tighter short-term rental rules. A property that looks cash-positive on your spreadsheet can look very different on a lender's.
10. List the equity you have tied up and what it could earn elsewhere. For owners with significant equity, that lost return is part of the cost of housing. It is also your capacity for a next purchase, a renovation, or consolidating higher-interest debt.
11. Put your other monthly debt payments on the same page. Car loans, lines of credit and card balances sit beside your housing cost in every lender calculation. Seeing them together is often what shows whether a refinance or consolidation would free up meaningful monthly cash flow.

The item people skip most is number 8. Nothing feels wrong until the renewal letter arrives. Running that one calculation now turns a surprise into a plan.