As homeownership plummets, young Canadians are moving in with family: poll

Young Canadians are holding fast to the dream of buying a home, even as overall rates of ownership are falling sharply, according to a new poll released by Scotiabank Tuesday.

The polling shows a steep decline in young homeowners over the past three years as housing unaffordability issues dogged would-be buyers. Some 26 per cent of Canadians aged 18 to 34 own a home today, down from 47 per cent in 2021, according to the poll.

At the same time, 29 per cent of respondents in that age group reported they were living at home with parents or family, up nine percentage points from three years ago. The number of renters was similarly higher among youth, up to 43 per cent from 29 per cent in 2021.

The Scotiabank report is based on polling of nearly 3,000 Canadians by Maru Public Opinion in early September.

Despite incremental improvements in some markets over recent months, housing affordability has largely worsened across Canada in the past few years.

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Surging home prices during the COVID-19 pandemic have cooled somewhat but remained elevated as the Bank of Canada rapidly hiked its policy rate, making mortgages more expensive. The central bank has gradually started unwinding that tightening with a series of interest rate cuts.

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Ipsos polling conducted exclusively for Global News after the Bank of Canada’s first interest rate cut of the cycle in June showed 45 per cent of respondents felt that they won’t be able to afford a home no matter how much interest rates drop. An overwhelming 78 per cent of those polled indicated that owning a home in Canada is now only for the rich.

Most millennials (55 per cent) and gen Z (58 per cent) respondents said they, too, felt buying a home was “unattainable,” according to the Scotiabank polling. Most respondents in these demographics report that a shaky economy is affecting their personal finances and pushing them to delay plans to purchase a home.

Despite that, a majority of Canadians aged 18 to 43 remain determined to purchase a home within the next five years.

Over the past year, roughly a third of millennial (31 per cent) and gen Z (37 per cent) respondents said their financial standing improved, causing them to move up with home-buying plans.