Nearly six out of 10 millennials residing in the Greater Toronto Area haven’t yet given up on their ambitions to own a home one day but many believe they will have to relocate in order to do so and some are even willing to seek out remote jobs to make it happen, a new survey suggests.
The Royal LePage survey conducted by Leger reveals that 59 per cent of GTA residents between the ages of 26 and 41, who do not currently own a home, still believe that they will some day.
However, only 22 per cent of those respondents anticipated buying a home in the city where they currently reside.
Another 37 per cent said that they would have to relocate to realize the dream of home ownership while 13 per cent didn’t want to say.
Nationally, only 31 per cent of respondents said that they would have to relocate to afford a home.
The survey also found that a plurality of GTA residents (49 per cent) would change employers in order to be able to work fully remote. Nationally, the percentage of respondents who said that they would change jobs in order to work remotely was lower – about 40 per cent.
“This generation of Torontonians overwhelmingly desires to be homeowners, and many of them are willing to make concessions in order to get on the real estate ladder,” Tom Storey of Royal LePage Signature Realty said in a press release accompanying the results. “Ideally, they would be able to work fully remotely and have the option to purchase wherever necessary to find a property within their price range. For those who have to be close to their place of work in the city, settling for a small condo is a common alternative.”
Real estate prices have fallen
Real estate prices in the GTA have fallen steadily in recent months amid a sustained campaign by the Bank of Canada to hike interest rates in a bid to battle inflation.
In a report released earlier this month, RBC warned that a housing correction already underway in the GTA could end up being “one of the deepest of the past half a century” with double-digit price declines from peak to trough.
However, it should be noted that the cost of buying a home in the Greater Toronto Area is still limiting for many residents with the average benchmark price in July coming in at $1,074,754.
According to the Royal LePage survey, more than half (56 per cent) of millennials in the GTA already own their home, which is roughly in line with the home ownership rate among that age group Canada-wide (57 per cent).
Of those who plan to purchase a home in the next five years, about 47 per cent said that they would do so in their current city while 45 per cent said that they would relocate.
Interestingly, when cost of living was excluded as a consideration approximately 80 per cent of GTA residents said that they would choose to remain in the region.
That was higher than any other urban centre for which a breakdown was provided.
“Many Canadians who are in the stage of life where home buying is a top priority, especially younger millennials, remain committed to achieving home ownership and are optimistic about the opportunities that lie ahead, due in large part to the example of their parents and family members who have reaped the benefits of our nation’s historically strong real estate market,” Royal LePage President and CEO Phil Soper said in the release. “Currently the largest proportion of our population, and so arguably the most impactful, millennials are a resilient group who are willing to make the necessary sacrifices in order to reach this milestone.”
The Leger survey was conducted between June 10 and June 16 using an online panel of 2,003 individuals.
A margin of error was not provided because a non-probability sample (web panel) was used for this survey.
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
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.
