When I started in the mortgage business nearly 30 years ago, there was a constant flow of people coming to mortgage brokers who worked as assistant managers at Loblaws or as practical nurses. There were a number of people with absolutely median-level incomes who easily accessed housing through CMHC and other means. These people don't exist anymore.
Without family help, without co-signers and without significant gifts of down payments, in major centres across Canada there are no opportunities for people with a moderate income of $55,000 to $65,000 to enter the housing market, except in the tiniest, microscopic levels of living in a condominium of less than 500 square feet. That's a tragedy. That's the only way to describe it.