When asked about various financial and economic issues, housing costs dominate Canadians’ concerns. The most recent survey from the Modalis Omnibus finds that, despite the recent softening of most Canadian real estate markets, a large number of Canadians are very concerned about the impact on their financial well-being.
Key findings in this release:
- Cost of housing is the number one financial concern of Canadians.
- Almost half say the real estate market poses a serious threat to their financial well-being.
- Few see any relief on the horizon, whether it is in regard to rents or home prices.
Three-quarters of Canadians are very concerned about the cost of housing today.
The cost of housing dominates Canadians’ financial and economic concerns. Housing costs tops the list with three-quarters being very worried about it.
- There is a large gap between homeowners and renters – 66% versus 92% showing high concern, respectively.
- There is a progressive decrease in concerns about housing costs with increased age and household income.
- Despite these variations, a strong majority of all subgroups express high levels of worry about housing costs in Canada.
The vast majority of Canadians say the real estate market poses a threat to their financial well-being.
Almost half say Canada’s residential real estate market poses a serious risk to their financial well-being. This represents a big jump since 2022.
While this result is more or less consistent across gender, age, income and region, there are some important variations:
- Renters feel significantly more vulnerable than homeowners – 57% versus 35% say high risk, respectively.
- Worries about risks to financial well-being due to the real estate market increases progressively with the share of income spent on housing for both homeowners or renters.
Whether it is rents or home prices, few Canadians see relief on the horizon.
Most Canadians think that both home prices and rents will increase over the next year.
While there has been a dip in the number thinking home prices will increase since 2023, expectations remain much higher than in September 2022.
- As may be expected given recent market trends, expectations for higher home prices are most acute in Alberta (74%).
- Expectations for higher rents decrease progressively with age from a high of 89% of those under 35 to 63% of seniors.
- Expectations for both increased rents and home prices are also higher among renters as compared with homeowners.
Discussion
It would be hard to overstate just how much consternation Canada’s housing situation is causing Canadians. As we reported last week, a large majority think the country is moving in the wrong direction. Housing costs are driving this gloomy sentiment to a large extent. Few Canadians see any relief in sight.
What governments have been doing to address this issue is clearly not working. There’s a lot of focus on ‘affordability’ and little on the actual cost of housing.
Methodology
These results come from the latest Modalis Omnibus which is powered by the Modalis Public Opinion Panel – 100% recruited using random probability telephone sampling. Unlike other research panels, Modalis contains no AI bots or ‘professional’ respondents.
Because the Modalis panel is built entirely using random probability sampling, it is valid to cite the margin of error for this survey. The survey is based on a representative sample of 1,604 Canadian adults and has a margin of error of +/- 2.4% points, 95 times out of 100. The survey data was collected from July 24 to August 7 and is weighted by age, gender, and region according to the latest Statistics Canada census.
