Lower rate of Canadians owning a home despite rising household income

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The homeownership rate in Canada has fallen to 66.5% after peaking at 69% in 2011, according to a statement released Wednesday by Statistics Canada, with the agency acknowledging that people are struggling to keep up. ‘difference.

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“Trying to figure out the right time to buy is a difficult decision that can leave Canadians wondering how long they want to wait to enter the real estate market – or if they even want to,” the agency said in its report.

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Although the slowdown in housing starts and home sales continued, home prices had already risen to such levels that even a major correction might not be enough for most Canadians to enter the market given the current interest rates.

According to Statistics Canada’s report, Housing in Canada 2011-2021, adults under 75, particularly millennials aged 25 to 29, were less likely to own their homes in 2021 than ten years ago.

Meanwhile, the growth of renter households more than doubled the growth of owner households. The agency said renter households increased by 21% between 2011 and 2021, compared to the homeownership growth rate of 8.4%.

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Housing is still at its most unaffordable level in 30 years — since the height of the housing bubble in the 1980s and 1990s — according to recent reports from the National Bank of Canada and the Royal Bank of Canada.

Despite the higher costs, Statistics Canada said the number of households spending more than 30% of their income on housing fell from 24% in 2016 to 20.9% in 2021.

The rate of unaffordable housing for renters fell from 40% to 33.2% over the same period, with most of the decline occurring among renters with incomes below the median renter household income (68. 4% in 2016, compared to 56% in 2021). ).

According to Statistics Canada, Canadians found more affordable housing in 2021 because they had higher incomes, largely thanks to pandemic support programs.

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However, despite widespread increases in wages and salaries, income inequality increased in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the same quarter a year earlier, according to the latest estimates of household economic accounts distributions.

City dwellers face the highest rates of unaffordable housing. The percentage of renters spending more than 30% of their income on shelter costs in 2021 was above the national average in 33 of 42 major urban centres.

More than a third of housing built from 2011 to 2021 was occupied and mostly maintained by millennial tenants or owners in 2021, the largest share of any generation. Millennials also accounted for the largest share of condominium occupants (30.2%).

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But housing starts in Canada have fallen since Statistics Canada collected the data for its report. The decline in August was 2.8% to 267,443 units, on a seasonally adjusted annual basis, from 275,158 units in July, according to data released by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. the country.

Residents of Atlantic Canada have historically been the most likely to be homeowners, and that has remained true in 2021, even as rates have fallen. Indeed, the largest declines in the country were recorded in Prince Edward Island, down from 73.4% to 68.8%, and in Nova Scotia, down from 70.8% at 66.8%.

British Columbia recorded the third largest drop in home ownership (66.8% from 70%), followed by Ontario, which fell to 68.4% from 71.4%.

Quebec saw the smallest decline (to 59.9% from 61.2%) but still had the lowest homeownership rate in Canada, as it has always had . The Northwest Territories recorded the only increase.

• Email: shcampbell@postmedia.com