Shannon Proudfoot
Sun
OTTAWA – Three-quarters of young Canadians say owning a house is important to them, according to a new Statistics Canada report, but everything from their family background to where they live influences how likely they are to make that dream a reality.
“Home ownership is very important to the vast majority of Canadians,” the report says. “Young adults are no different from the general population in this respect, although they are much less likely to be homeowners themselves.”
Young rural residents are much more likely to be homeowners than city dwellers, likely due to higher housing costs in the city and few rentals in outlying areas, the federal agency says.
About 71 per cent of young people in rural areas and small towns owned a home last year, compared to just 53 per cent of those in Toronto, 48 per cent in Montreal and 54 per cent in Vancouver.
The exception to that trend is Calgary, where young people are just as likely to be homeowners as their rural counterparts.
The chances of owning a home increase with every birthday that passes. Only 38 per cent of Canadians aged 25 to 27 owned their own home, while 63 per cent of 31- to 33-year-olds and 73 per cent of those aged 37 to 39 did so.
Perhaps more unexpected is the role of family background: young people who lived with both parents until age 15 were 1.4 times more likely to be homeowners than those who didn’t. First-time homebuyers from intact families may have greater access to resources such as parents acting as mortgage guarantors or offering interest-free loans, Statistics Canada suggests.
Household income has a major impact on home ownership for young adults, which the agency calls “hardly shocking.” Just 22 per cent of those with a household income of less than $30,000 were homeowners in 2006, compared to 68 per cent of those earning $50,000 to $80,000 and 82 per cent of those making over $100,000.
The link between education and earning power is clear in the fact that people who had not completed post-secondary education were 40-per-cent less likely to be homeowners than those with a degree.
Temporary employment makes income unpredictable and home ownership difficult, the report also shows. Young people with those jobs were 40-per-cent less likely to own homes than those with a permanent job, even when income and other factors are taken into account.
The data comes from the 2006 General Social Survey, and this report focused on Canadians aged 25 to 39 not living with their parents.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007