toronto housing bubble

94% of Toronto residents say they face barriers to owning a home

Worried about the prospect of never ever owning your own home? If you live in Toronto (and want to buy here), you're far from alone.

A new poll conducted by Ipsos research company for the online real estate database Zillow suggests that the vast majority of Toronto residents are currently concerned "that circumstances beyond their control may prevent them from buying a home."

Chief among these circumstances are the fast-rising prices of both condos and detached houses, which are going for an average of $679,182 and $1,369,848 respectively as of January 2020.

"It's no secret that Toronto is one of Canada's toughest housing markets to crack," reads the Ipsos report released this week. "Demand outpaces supply, which keeps prices inching steadily upward."

Indeed: Analysts predict that the average selling price across all home types in Toronto will be more than $933,000 by the end of 2020 — up from just $787,195 in 2017.

Based on how fast the market has been heating up again (after dipping briefly in 2018 due to government cooling measures), Ipsos reports that some 84 per cent of Torontonians now believe we're in the midst of a housing bubble.

"Seven in ten [Toronto residents] are concerned that rising home prices will prevent them from being able to afford the home they want — rising to 77% among Torontonians who have bought a home in the past three years," reads the report, fitting titled Toronto housing bubble stokes fears on future of home ownership in Canada's largest city

The market research firm's survey of just over 1,500 people revealed that, while more than 80 per cent of Torontonians still rate the value of owning a home positively, a whopping 94 per cent "see barriers between themselves and home ownership."

The most common barrier recorded was coming up a with a down payment, followed by too-high monthly mortgage payments, qualifying for a mortgage, debt and a lack of job security.

Nothing wrong with renting forever, am I right? For the sake of my entire generation, I very much hope so.

Lead photo by

LunarKate


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