People looking for apartments in Vancouver know that the prices are sometimes out of this world.

But the annual snapshots from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation can manage to present a more benign view.

For example, last November the Crown housing agency stated that the average rent for all apartments in purpose-built rental housing in Metro Vancouver was $1,223 per month. This statistic included two-bedroom and three-bedroom units.

Average prices for a one-bedroom unit in Vancouver were between $955 in Marpole and $1,441 in English Bay, according to CMHC.

Prices were lower than in Marpole in some of the suburbs.

However, the June 2017 Canadian Rent Report by PadMapper paints a distinctly different and more disturbing picture.

It maintains that the average cost of a one-bedroom apartment in Vancouver is $1,950 per month. This makes Vancouver's rental market the most expensive in the country.

So what accounts for the discrepancy?

"The PadMapper Canadian Rent Report analyzes rental data from hundreds of thousands of active listings across the country," the website states. "Listings are then aggregated on a monthly basis to calculate median asking rents for the top 25 most populous metro areas, providing a comprehensive view of the current state of the market. The report is based on all data available in the month prior to publication."

CMHC, on the other hand, only collects data in "privately initiated apartment structures containing at least three units" for its numbers. This includes occupied units, whereas PadMapper relies only on listings.

Apartment rent increases are capped under a provincial regulation. This means that people who've lived in their suites for a longer period of time are quite likely paying lower rents than what landlords are offering similar units for in a tight rental market.

Hence, PadMapper's rental rates are higher because it's only relying on listings.

Of course, that's no consolation for anyone in the market looking to find a roof to put over their head.