How Canadians are Redefining Homeownership

Did you know that nearly 90% of Canadians under 30 want to own a home? 

Or that 61% of Canadians believe the homes being built today don’t meet the needs of Canadian households? 

While homeownership remains an important milestone, what it looks like and how Canadians think about it is changing.

David Coletto, CEO and founder of Abacus Data, joins this episode of REAL TIME to discuss recent findings in research conducted with the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), focusing on how Canadians view homeownership, and how “good data drives good decisions” when it comes to fair housing policy in Canada.

It’s not every day that REAL TIME host, Shaun Majumder, speaks to the so-called “pseudo Jedi in Canadian politics.” First question to Coletto: what age did you have that dream? 

Stressing that he’s unsure if anyone really dreams of being a pollster, Coletto tells us about how baseball statistics are one of the first numbers he got really excited about, and how they informed him when he later became interested in politics. “I've always been interested in [the way people behave], regardless of whether it's politics or housing, or what bubblegum people prefer,” says Coletto. 

They get straight into the numbers. 

Recently Coletto and his team partnered with CREA to do a large national survey, resulting in two reports. 

1. 9 in 10 Canadians are Concerned About the State of Housing in Canada Today
2. Housing the Goal: How Canadians Are Resizing Expectations and Redefining What Homeownership Means

In describing this project, Coletto recounts a few questions his team was endeavouring to address. First and foremost, are people losing interest in one day owning a home? In addition, 

What does home ownership mean to people? 

Why do they want still to have it? 

How are younger Canadians’ expectations changing? 

Is skepticism, maybe even pessimism, rising? 

What can we do to fix that? 

Among others. 

Now, that’s a lot of questions—but deeply important for Canadians and law makers alike to understand. 

In a conversation about numbers that’s anything but dull, Coletto breaks down the information, adding additional insights from behind-the-scenes and highlighting the the patterns they found by crunching the numbers. 

Listen to the full episode to learn all the insights and context Coletto has to offer.