TORONTO, Feb. 24, 2020 /CNW/ — For residents of Canada’s largest city, Toronto, it is no secret that the housing market presents challenges. According to a recent Zillow and Ipsos survey, Torontonians confidence in their ability to own the home they want is on the decline due to rising home prices. For buyers, 77% are concerned they can’t afford the home they want, up four points from 2018. More than two thirds (68%) of sellers are concerned they can afford the home they want, an increase from 55% in 2018.
Toronto is also the city most likely to be perceived to be in a housing bubble. More than eight in 10 (84%) of Torontonians think that the Toronto housing market is in a bubble, with inflated housing prices, and at risk for a correction. This perception drops significantly amongst Torontonians for other Canadian cities with 61% for Vancouver and far fewer thinking Victoria (18%), Montreal (13%), Ottawa (10%), Whistler (9%), Calgary (8%), or Edmonton (6%) are experiencing housing bubbles.
Nearly all Torontonians (94%) identified barriers to owning a home. Toronto residents report a number of things that concerned them in the home buying process — the most common among them is coming up with a down payment (66%). Other barriers cited include high monthly mortgage payments (61%), qualifying for a mortgage (56%), debt (49%) and lack of job security (44%).
Despite perceived barriers in the Toronto market, many Torontonians (83%) still value home ownership as a good investment, an increase from 79% in 2018. This is stronger than the national average of 76%.
Navigating a challenging market may be why many Torontonians consult real estate professionals as part of their searching, shopping or purchasing journey. More than nine in ten sellers (91%) and 86% of buyers consulted a real estate agent or broker. The challenges may also contribute to Torontonians taking more private home tours than Vancouver residents, an average of 6.1 tours compared to 4.5 tours for Vancouver shoppers.
This all could also contribute to a longer home search for Toronto residents. Nearly four in ten (39%) spend four months or more searching for a new home, with seven percent spending one year or more.
About the Study
These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between September 24 and October 8, 2019, on behalf of Zillow. For this survey, a sample of 1,503 Canadians aged 18+ (including 821 Toronto CMA residents) was interviewed online via the Ipsos I-Say panel. Quota sampling and weighting were employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample’s composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ±2.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadian adults been polled. Results from the Toronto CMA sample are accurate to within ±3.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.
