Century 21 Canadian Housing Trends Survey

Vancouver, BC -- Gen-Y Canadians are just as likely as Boomers to place importance on home ownership. Six-in-ten (61%) of Gen Y-ers rate home ownership as very important (6 or 7 on a scale of 1 to 7 where `1' is not at all important and `7' is very important) and 65% of Boomers place high importance on home ownership. That said, only 16% of Gen-Y currently own a home.

However, the majority of Canadian Gen-Yers do intend to buy. Of those who do not currently own a home, 84% say they will buy within the next 10 years and 37% say they are likely to purchase a home within two years.

Being `tired of renting' (24%) and home ownership being `cheaper than renting' (24%) are key reasons given by those intending to purchase in the next two years.

Location is top priority for most of these Gen-Yers. Among all Gen-Yers surveyed (regardless of whether or not they own a home or will purchase in the next 10 years), almost seven-in-ten (69%) cite location as one of the three key features they looked for or are looking for when purchasing a home. Other important features are price/affordability (44%) and space/square footage (39%).

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid poll conducted on behalf of Century 21 between May 30 and June 4, 2003. The poll is based on an online survey of 601 randomly selected adult Canadians (between the ages of 18 to 26 and 40 to 54) using Ipsos-Reid's Canadian Internet Panel. Panelists are chosen through random telephone surveys conducted on an ongoing basis across Canada. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 177 4.0 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult Canadian online population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual online Canadian population.

For more information on this release, please contact:

Claire McRobbie
Senior Research Manager, Ipsos-Reid
604.893.1685