Amid record-high prices, a growing number of Canadians are putting plans to buy a home on hold, according to a new poll from Scotiabank.
“It’s no surprise that a perfect storm made up of the rising cost of living, housing supply shortages, and increased demand has caused Canadians to feel like homeownership is out of reach,” John Webster, Scotiabank’s head of real estate and secured lending, said in a news release.
Published on Monday, the 2022 Scotiabank Housing Poll says 43 per cent of Canadians are now putting plans to buy a home on hold, compared with 33 per cent in 2021, and 20 per cent in 2020.
“Twice as many Canadians are putting their plans to purchase a home on hold in today’s economic environment, when compared to the first year of the pandemic and the height of uncertainty in 2020,” Scotiabank said.
Younger Canadians seem to be feeling even worse about the housing market. According to the survey, 56 per cent of respondents ages 18 to 34 said the current economic environment had led them to halt plans to purchase a home, while 62 per cent said they were waiting for prices to fall before buying.
“Concerns over costs of living, rising interest rates, market instability, and economic uncertainty has most millennials feeling discouraged about their homeownership aspirations,” Scotiabank said.
The poll also found an increasing number of Canadians appear willing to move further away from major cities to get more value for their money, with 35 per cent of respondents in 2022 reporting they are considering it, versus 29 per cent in 2021. Those numbers rise to 49 per cent for younger Canadians, and 39 per cent for Ontario residents.
For those who are staying put where they live, 59 per cent of survey respondents said they’d choose to renovate their property over buying a new home, up from 56 per cent in 2020.
The poll was conducted by Maru Public Opinion on behalf of Scotiabank between Feb. 15 and 17, 2022. It included 3,027 Canadian adults, whose responses were weighted by education, age, gender and region to match current census data. The results have an estimated margin of error of ± 1.8 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
MONTREAL – The Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers says Montreal-area home sales rose 9.3 per cent in August compared with the same month last year, with levels slightly higher than the historical average for this time of year.
The association says home sales in the region totalled 2,991 for the month, up from 2,737 in August 2023.
The median price for all housing types was up year-over-year, led by a six per cent increase for the price of a plex at $763,000 last month.
The median price for a single-family home rose 5.2 per cent to $590,000 and the median price for a condominium rose 4.4 per cent to $407,100.
QPAREB market analysis director Charles Brant says the strength of the Montreal resale market contrasts with declines in many other Canadian cities struggling with higher levels of household debt, lower savings and diminishing purchasing power.
Active listings for August jumped 18 per cent compared with a year earlier to 17,200, while new listings rose 1.7 per cent to 4,840.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2024.
