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Articles & Guides - Buying Ajax / Pickering Real Estate
Home Ownership Survey
Overall intentions to buy a home in the next two years remain the same as before at 29 per cent, according to RBC Royal Bank's 13th Annual Homeownership Survey.
Seventy per cent (versus 54 per cent last year) believe mortgage rates will be higher next year. If mortgage rates are to rise, more than half (56 per cent) of mortgage holders aren't overly concerned because they have fixed rate mortgages, while 27 per cent say they will probably make changes such as locking into a fixed rate mortgage or splitting between fixed and variable.
"Considering the flurry of activity we've seen over the last few years, it's likely that those who made their purchases prefer to stay put and perhaps lock in their mortgages while interest rates remain affordable," added Adams. "The overwhelming preference among those who are planning to buy is to move up to a larger home, indicating the majority may be thinking and planning for the longer term."
Further proof that those who bought during the recent flurry of activity are more likely to settle in for a while is that twice as many renters than owners (15 per cent versus eight per cent) are very likely to purchase a home within the next two years. Last year, 20% of renters versus 10 per cent of owners were very likely to purchase a home.
Detached homes were the choice of 71% of Canadian homebuyers. This was followed by condominium/loft at 12 per cent; townhouses at eight per cent; and semi-detached homes at four per cent.
For homeowners who are planning to purchase a home in the next two years, trading up is still the most popular reason for a pending move. In fact, there was an increase in the number of people who prefer a bigger home (51 per cent versus 46 per cent) and a decrease in the number of people thinking of a same size (28 per cent versus 32 per cent) or smaller home (20 per cent versus 22 per cent). Potential buyers age 25 to 34 are the most likely to buy a bigger home (75 per cent) while those over age 55 were the most likely to downsize (56 per cent).
For those buying, resale purchase intentions jumped to 74 per cent, an 11 per cent increase over last year. The youngest homebuyers, age 18 to 24, are the most likely to prefer new homes (30 per cent) while those age 25-34 are the most likely to purchase resale property (76 per cent).
The RBC Financial Group poll conducted by Ipsos-Reid between January 18 th and 24 th 2006. The online survey is based on a randomly selected representative sample of 2,001 adult Canadians. With a representative sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within (+/-) 2.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.