After hitting a record high in 2011, homeownership in Canada has declined for the first time in almost half a century.
Taking a closer look at the data and zooming in at city level, Point2 Homes put together a new study highlighting the evolution of homeownership rates in Canada’s 100 biggest urban centres.
Kelowna’s share of homeowners changed throughout the years, from 67.5 per cent in 2001 to 72 per cent in 2006, then 71.6 per cent in 2011, and 68.1 per cent in 2016.
The city recorded a 4.9 per cent drop in homeownership after 2011 – the 6th biggest decline in Canada and the 3rd largest in BC, after Nanaimo and Abbotsford.
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From 2001 to 2016, Kelowna posted only a slight 0.9 per cent decrease in the percentage of homeowners.
Rates were similar in Vernon, where ownership rates dropped from 72 per cent in 2011 to 68 per cent in 2016.
Point2 Homes argues that the evolution of Canada’s homeownership trend is due to the burst of China’s speculative bubble. It, they say, sent shock waves through the global economy, according to a 2015 analysis by Maclean’s, with especially large effects on Canada’s resource-based, export-driven economy.
The collapse of oil prices and the country’s heavy reliance on exports to its Asian partner pushed Canada into a recession. The ensuing economic deceleration affected wages, hence lowering people’s purchasing power. Home prices, however, kept going up, leading to the decline in homeownership rates revealed by the 2016 Statcan numbers.
Point2 Homes is an international real estate search portal, a division of Yardi Systems Inc. Read the original report here.
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