according to RBC research from 2017<\/a>.<\/p>\nThat surpassed the 10-year average at the time (38.7 percent), was up 3.4 percentage points from Q4 2015, and remained well above the one-third of income Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation deems to be the threshold for true affordability.<\/p>\n
Well, in the Statistics Canada report, researcher Sharanjit Uppal lays it out: \u201cAlmost all of this increase was because of population aging, given that families in older age groups are more likely to own their homes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Canadians under 35 years of age are more likely to still be in school and busy socking away money for a downpayment, Statistics Canada explains.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s yet another example of Canada\u2019s aging population \u2014 for the first time ever, seniors represented a larger share of the population than children, as per the 2016 Census \u2014 impacting the housing market.<\/p>\n
Another cohort appears to have supported the homeownership rate: recent immigrants.<\/p>\n
Characterized as persons who moved to Canada within the last five years, recent immigrants saw their homeownership rate explode from 1999 to 2016.<\/p>\n
By 2016, 39 percent of recent immigrants were homeowners, up from 17 percent in 1999.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite the large increase in homeownership rates of recent immigrants, they remained less likely to own their homes than established immigrants and Canadian-born individuals,\u201d notes Uppal.<\/p>\n
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