Not really, the political class would cause a revolt from the voters (remember, home ownership is still around 65% in Canada) if they passed policies that dropped the price of housing by 80-90% that quickly.
I always hear that 65% homeowner number floating around but I still haven’t seen a source that differentiates between home owners, and people who live in a household with home owners. Do adult children who can’t afford to move out count as part of the 65% or the other 35%? Also, I don’t know if any of the basement suites I’ve lived in have legally counted as a separate household as they don’t have their own address or unit number. Do the stats take families like mine into account? I’m not trying to disagree with your point here, I’m just very curious if that statistic is actually as accurate or relevant as it seems.
The way it’s calculated by Stats Canada is that of 100% of the residential properties that exist, 65% of them are occupied by the family that owns the property. This can include adult children.
Basement suites are counted as a separate household, even less-than-legal ones.
That does mean that there are less than 65% of people that own a home, but you also have to account for the fact that Homeowners are FAR more likely to vote than non-home owners from a demographic perspective. The voting block is absolutely massive AND is the group that has money to fund political campaigns.
In 2016, 63% of Canadian families owned their homes, up from 60% in 1999. Almost all of this increase was because of population aging, given that families in older age groups are more likely to own their homes.
other fun facts:
From 1999 to 2016, mortgage debt represented two-thirds of the overall increase in debt for Canadian families, while consumer debt made up the remainder. In recent years (2012 to 2016), mortgage debt was responsible for 100% of the increase in total debt.
From 1999 to 2016, the median amount of mortgage debt among Canadian families with a mortgage almost doubled, from $91,900 to $180,000 in 2016 constant dollars. The amount of mortgage debt increased in nearly all demographic groups and in almost all regions of Canada.
Any change to tax laws would need to preserve the position of folks who have already made choices based on the current tax structure.
Adding a lifetime maximum on the capital gains for selling a primary residence would be a step in the right direction. Many US states apparently have that.
Similarly, removing/reducing the mortgage interest deductions for improvements to primary residences would clearly signal that homes are not investment vehicles.
As Gen Squeeze suggests, we can also increase taxes on residences that spike up over a certain value. They suggest one million dollars, but that could vary by region.
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Political will is the bottleneck. We’d be able to figure something out if the political class gave a shit.
If nothing else, they could start changing the tax laws so real estate became less of an investment vehicle.
Not really, the political class would cause a revolt from the voters (remember, home ownership is still around 65% in Canada) if they passed policies that dropped the price of housing by 80-90% that quickly.
I always hear that 65% homeowner number floating around but I still haven’t seen a source that differentiates between home owners, and people who live in a household with home owners. Do adult children who can’t afford to move out count as part of the 65% or the other 35%? Also, I don’t know if any of the basement suites I’ve lived in have legally counted as a separate household as they don’t have their own address or unit number. Do the stats take families like mine into account? I’m not trying to disagree with your point here, I’m just very curious if that statistic is actually as accurate or relevant as it seems.
The way it’s calculated by Stats Canada is that of 100% of the residential properties that exist, 65% of them are occupied by the family that owns the property. This can include adult children.
Basement suites are counted as a separate household, even less-than-legal ones.
That does mean that there are less than 65% of people that own a home, but you also have to account for the fact that Homeowners are FAR more likely to vote than non-home owners from a demographic perspective. The voting block is absolutely massive AND is the group that has money to fund political campaigns.
Apparently it’s 63% of Canadian families:
other fun facts:
I think the stat remains sort of relevant.
65% of Canadians agree with reducing the home ownership tax shelter.
Any change to tax laws would need to preserve the position of folks who have already made choices based on the current tax structure.
Adding a lifetime maximum on the capital gains for selling a primary residence would be a step in the right direction. Many US states apparently have that.
Similarly, removing/reducing the mortgage interest deductions for improvements to primary residences would clearly signal that homes are not investment vehicles.
As Gen Squeeze suggests, we can also increase taxes on residences that spike up over a certain value. They suggest one million dollars, but that could vary by region.