By The Canadian Press

A Bank of Montreal report on first-time home buyers says the average budget has increased to $316,100.

That’s up nearly six per cent from an average of $300,000 in last year’s report on first-time home buyers.

The BMO study says a sample of prospective buyers in Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary had even higher budgets for their first home.

About one-third (30 per cent) of the 513 Canadians interviewed online for the study said they expected assistance from parents or family.

Nearly two-thirds (61 per cent) said they have made cuts to their lifestyle to save for their first home.

Pollara conducted the online interviews for BMO between Jan. 24 and March 6.

The polling industry’s professional body, the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.