Ya, that's clearly not a criterion. Here's what the article says:
The EIU ranked 173 cities on more than 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five broad categories: stability, health care, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. Access to health care, amount of green space, cultural and sports activities, crime rates and infrastructure are some of the factors considered in the rankings.
I left Toronto because I couldn't afford to buy a somewhat cheap condo or a reasonable house. My household income was $160k at the time. It's a nice city with great services, great people, but the housing is unbelievable - it forced me and my family out with our two kids.
I have also visited Copenhagen and it's the same there - extremely high housing costs means that you're poor by default unless you bought in 20-30 years ago. Great, I can buy a beer for 5 kroner, but housing is an apartment for $300k
Calgary, Sydney, Auckland, Vancouver... yes, all of these also apply.