(1) employment growth, sourced from the Bureau of Labor
Statistics Economic Summaries in August 2016, with the percentage representing the employment change from June 2015 to June 2016 in each city; (2) population growth, based on and sourced from the 2014 and 2015 Census, with the percentage representing the change in population from 2014 to 2015; (3) increase in home values, based on Zillow Home Value, with the percentage representing the change in
median home values for single -
family homes from June 2015 to June 2016, sourced August 2016; (4) years to pay off property, which was based using the
median home value for July 2016 and the
median rent for a single -
family residence for July 2016, both sourced from Zillow;
median rent was multiplied by 12 to obtain yearly rent and then home value was divided by yearly rent to determine how many years it would take for the home to be paid off from rental
income using current home values and rent prices for each city.
According to
Statistics Canada, the
median family income for a household headed by a couple in 2007 was $ 73,400 annually, more than double that of a household headed by a single person with at least one child, at $ 34,500 annually.
Take Toronto, for example, where recent
statistics show the
median family income is $ 75,270 and the average home costs $ 762,975.
The following
statistics have been reported for this region: 10 % poor; $ 48,834
median yearly
income; 78 % non-Hispanic white; 11 % African American / black; 88 % high school education or more; and 73 % marriage rate for
families with children (FedStats, 2002; NCES, 2001).