Changing Patterns in Canadian Homeownership and Shelter Costs, 2006 Census: Findings

• Highlights
  • Homeownership increasing
  • Mortgage holding also up
  • Condominium ownership rising quickly
  • Shelter costs increase at faster pace for owners
  • Percentage of households spending 30% or more of their income on shelter up marginally
• Introduction
• Housing tenure
  • Homeownership rate continues to rise
  • Homeownership increases at all levels of income
  • Homeownership rate for people living alone increasing
  • For the first time, more than half of lone-mother households owned their home
• Presence of a mortgage
  • Six in 10 owner households had a mortgage
  • Share of mortgage-free owner households declines
  • Age a factor in the shift to mortgage holding
• Condominium status
  • Condominium ownership continues to climb
  • Condominium households with mortgages dominated by younger households
  • Rates of condominium ownership highest in British Columbia census metropolitan areas
• Housing life cycle
  • Younger households: Renting is the most common tenure
  • Starting at age 55, mortgage-free homeownership is the most common tenure
• Shelter costs
  • Shelter costs increase at faster pace for owners
  • Mortgage-free owners had the lowest median shelter costs
• Comparing shelter costs to income
  • Percentage of households spending 30% or more of their income on shelter up marginally
  • Renters represented just over half of households spending 30% or more of their
    income on shelter in 2006
  • Condominium owners with mortgages saw the largest increase in the proportion
    spending 30% or more of their income on shelter
  • Lone-parent households renting: Decline in the proportion spending 30% or more
    of their income on shelter
  • Half of renters living alone spent 30% or more of their income on shelter
• Immigrants
  • Narrowing homeownership rate gap between immigrants and Canadian-born
  • Immigrants twice as likely as Canadian-born to live in a condominium
  • Increases in shelter costs higher for immigrants than for the Canadian-born population
  • Immigrants more likely than Canadian-born to spend 30% or more of their
    income on shelter
• Geographical differences
  • Atlantic Canada
  • Quebec
  • Ontario
  • Manitoba
  • Saskatchewan
  • Alberta
  • British Columbia
  • The territories

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