Janet Robertson had few choices after being evicted from her apartment of two decades in Vancouver, Canada’s most expensive city.

Even listings in nearby suburbs were out of reach after years of paying 900 Canadian dollars, or $650, monthly for her studio apartment. She kept going until she could find something she could afford and ended up renting in a town about 60 miles east of Vancouver.

“I really didn’t have any other options but to come to Chilliwack,” Ms. Robertson said.

Chilliwack, a farming community encircled by snow-capped peaks, was once looked down on by city dwellers because of its rural and isolated character. Now, it has become a magnet for people from Vancouver who can no longer afford living there.

Across Canada’s urban centers, climbing housing prices are pushing renters out and making buying a home a distant dream, especially for first-time buyers. The housing problem, which many in Canada describe as a full-blown crisis, is a top concern for voters heading to the polls on April 28 to cast ballots in national elections.

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Canada’s urban centers and, increasingly, its suburbs are now on lists of the most expensive places in the world to find a home.

In Toronto, the standard price for a single-family home, according to an index used by Canadian real estate agents to compare home sales, is around 1.4 million Canadian dollars, about $1 million, compared with 970,000 dollars, or $700,000, in 2020.

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