Here, in association with the impartial Vancouver Sun, is their latest gambit:

The UDI / FortisBC Housing Affordability Index

Headlines regularly tell people that Vancouver is among the least affordable cities in the world. But often they don’t tell the full story — that while the city of Vancouver is a pricey place to be a homeowner, the suburbs still have home prices that are affordable to most families.

Today, The Vancouver Sun introduces the UDI/FortisBC Housing Affordability Index, a new way to look at housing prices that provides a clearer, more specific picture of affordability across Metro Vancouver. The index was developed by a partnership of The Sun, the Urban Development Institute and Urban Analytics Inc. over the past three months.

Anne McMullin, president and CEO of the Urban Development Institute, said she thinks it may dispel some of the “myths and hysteria” that are sometimes heard about housing.

“It gived us a different read and drills down a bit more to have a better understanding of what affordability is really like in the region,” said McMullin. “There’s no doubt that there are issues of affordability in certain areas. But I think, as a region, the numbers aren’t bad.”

Read the full article here. It’s a whole new way to measure affordability and will be reported in the Sun each quarter. I wonder if it’s anything like the Vancouver Realtor Hunger Index?