Number of home owners rises sharply.
January 10, 2005 - The number of people owning their homes has risen sharply across Canada because of low mortgage rates and higher disposable income. According to a new Statistics Canada study, 62.6 per cent of households owned their own home in 1991. By 1996, this had risen to 63.6 per cent, and by 2001 it was up to 65.8 per cent. The gain between 1996 and 2001 represented the largest increase during any five-year period since 1971.
"Low mortgage rates, strong employment growth, and rising disposable incomes brought homeownership within reach of increasing numbers of households," said the report. "Despite rising in the late 1990s, mortgage rates in 2001 were, nonetheless, lower than in 1996 and much lower than at the beginning of the decade. The decline in rates helped counteract the effect on mortgage carrying costs of relatively strong house price increases in the second half of the 1990s. Households looking to purchase homes further benefited from accelerating employment and income growth during this period."
In 27 of the largest urban areas across Canada, ownership rates rose in all metropolitan areas, except Abbotsford, B.C. The largest increase during the decade occurred in Calgary where home ownership rates jumped from 60.6 per cent to 70.6 per cent. In 2001, more than three-quarters of all households (75.6 per cent) owned their own home in Oshawa, the highest rate of any urban centre. Rates were below average in Quebec, especially in Montreal where just half of households owned their homes despite decades of increases.
© Copyright CanWest Global Interactive Inc. 2005