TORONTO — Three in four Canadians who don't own a property say buying a home feels out of reach, a new poll shows. A CIBC survey, published Thursday, shows 76 per cent of Canadians who haven't yet entered the housing market feel homeownership is a far-off dream, but more than half of them are holding on to their goal of one day owning a home. At least 70 per cent of non-homeowners said they were priced out of the market while 63 per cent said it is hard to save for a down payment, the survey sho
Yes, home buying plans are an empty ploy by governments to be able to say they’re helping prospective home owners, without introducing risk to the portfolios of retirees.
The ploy is empty because within a housing area first time buyers are generally all competing for the same units. If you help all of them, you’re not really helping anyone other than the sellers.
I think part of the reason that housing is so unaffordable is that a large portion of home owners own much more house than they need or truly desire, but they’ve lived there for 30 years, there isn’t a more appealing place to move and moving is an overwhelming task to them.
I think that if we want to convert single family detached housing into higher density, we have to build spaces that baby boomers will want to move to. And we ought to encourage (marketing) them to move, and help them through the process. By help I mean, maybe municipalities could have an office of impartial coordinators that could make sure seniors aren’t getting ripped off by scummy realtors. Programs along those lines anyway.