No, Fox News, $4,470 isn’t enough to cover rent in most of Canada
Only US$4,470 a year (that's $373 a month) to rent a home in Canada? Where do I sign up?
Perhaps Fox News knows the answer.
In a tweet on Sunday, the U.S. news network offered up a basic assessment of the costs for a U.S. citizen looking to live in Canada.
It included the aforementioned numbers on rent, as well as other costs, such as groceries, a visa and work permit, permanent resident application, car registration and gas.
Cost of living in Canada. pic.twitter.com/ha3313j47V
— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 29, 2016
Fox News drew the numbers from the personal finance blog The Penny Hoarder.
Unfortunately, these bargain-basement prices don’t exist in most of the country. In fact, these numbers are way below the average costs of rent for a one-bedroom apartment in major Canadian cities such as Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal, where they’re pegged at C$1,079, $1,122 $1,103 and $668 respectively.
While Fox News's data was properly sourced, they misconstrued the data. The yearly rent figure of $4,470 was based on a three-bedroom apartment, outside a city centre and shared with two roommates.
Fox News’ tweet wasn’t clear that this was the case, nor would many people looking to move north want to share their living space with two other people.
According to data from RentSeeker.ca released late last year, US$373 a month or about C$488, could fetch a one-bedroom apartment in two Quebec cities: the Montreal suburb of Longueuil, or Saguenay, which is about 200 kilometres north of Quebec City.
At first, American Twitter users were going looney over the prospect of moving north of the border and finding these dirt-cheap lodgings.
@FoxNews @mikeverbs1 4470 a year to rent? Brb, immigrating.
— #BeauCubsBeau (@INukeYou) May 29, 2016
But then others were quick to point out the error.
@INukeYou @FoxNews @mikeverbs1 not so fast, like most of Fox's info, that's made up!
— Andrew Chobaniuk UE (@morbital) May 29, 2016