A study on the cost of buying a house in six English-speaking countries ranks Regina as the most affordable city in Canada.

In Regina, it takes the average person twice their annual salary to buy a home, according to a 2006 study recently released by the Winnipeg-based Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

The centre looked at how many years of family income it takes to buy a house in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland.

Winnipeg was tied with Quebec City for second among the 17 Canadian cities surveyed. In those cities, it takes an average of 2.5 years of salary to buy a home.

In Saskatoon, it would take 2.6 years, putting the city fourth on the Canadian list. Canada was the most affordable of the six countries. On average, citizens require only 3.2 years of annual income to purchase a home.

The study considers communities with a 3.0-year rating or smaller to be affordable.

The most affordable community of the six countries is Fort Wayne, Ind., while the least affordable area is Los Angeles and Orange County. In Canada, Vancouver, described as "severely unaffordable," came in last, taking 7.7 years of income, on average, to buy a house.

Source: Frontier Centre for Public Policy

Canada's most affordable cities for buying a house
Ranking	City	Multiple	Median Price	Median Income
1	Regina	2.0	$115,000	$57,500
2	Winnipeg	2.5	$130,100	$52,300
2	Quebec	2.5	$128,200	$51,100
4	Saskatoon	2.6	$138,000	$52,100