Barenaked Ladies lyric swap goes viral for tackling Canada housing crisis: 'If I had 10 million dollars'

A cover of Barenaked Ladies 1988 hit "If I Had $1000000" with a timely lyric swap is going viral for hitting a little close to home with many Canadians.

At a time where the affordability crisis makes daily headlines and home ownership is more of a dream than a reality to many Canadians, 21-year-old Queens University student Jeremy Keyton cleverly swapped out the lyrics of the Barenaked Ladies hit with prices cheekily "adjusted for inflation."

"If I had ten million dollars, I could maybe buy you a house," Keyton croons while strumming his guitar.

The video is landing with Canadians, quickly racking up over 400,000 views and hundreds of comments.

Keyton ends the video with one more lyric swap singing "If I had ten million dollars, I would be middle class."

Home prices in Canadian cities

While $10,000,000 may be a bit of a stretch for Canadians to break into home ownership, let's take a look at what average home prices look like across the country, as well as the minimum income required to purchase a home.

Softening mortgage rates are a source of optimism for potential homeowners going into 2024 — and bumping down the average house price, analysis conducted by Ratehub.ca suggests.

Vancouver, B.C. tops the list, where potential home buyers will need to fork over $1,161,300 to own. In Atlantic Canada, prices are somewhat softer for the wallet with an average home in Fredericton, N.B., costing $286,400.

Canadians react: 'Y'all this song is too accurate'

Online reaction is pouring in for Keaton's viral lyric swap with dozens lamenting the state of Canada's housing market.

"If I had 1 million," one commenter wrote, "I’d buy like a [$250,000] house, put $100,000 in renos, go to Costco [to] stock on some food, and then take a week off from work [...] take a [little] trip then put the rest in savings and go back to work."

Others pointed to what prices were like last decade compared to today, saying: "This hurts."

"As someone who was a kid during '08, this hurts, cause even then [1 million] was a lot [...] heck $20 was decent at the store."