The BBC crunched the (toast) numbers and created The Avocado Toast Index to help millennials save for a home down payment
Are you under 35 and frustrated with soaring housing prices and unaffordable homes? If the answer is yes, the BBC has put together a fun down payment saving strategy for you.
The UK media company recently created The Avocado Toast Index as a lighthearted response to multi-millionaire developer Tim Gurner's message to millennial buyers frustrated at the lack of housing affordability in major global cities.
"When I was trying to buy my first home, I wasn't buying smashed avocado for $19 and four coffees at $4 each," Gurner told Australia's 9 News earlier this month.
The BBC's Avocado Toast Index riffs off of Gurner's stern message in a fun, playful but informative way. The Index was created by taking the average cost of avocado toast in several cafés in cities around the world, and calculated the number of toasts that would need to be uneaten to afford a 20% down payment on a home. The BBC used housing prices based on the average price for a 968-square-foot apartment outside of city centres, using cost-of-living website Numbeo.
The Index shows that 17,421 avocado toasts must be left unpurchased to save enough for a 20% down payment in Vancouver.
Feel hungry yet? Check out the tasty index below.
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