Profile of Home Buying in Canada: CAAMP releases its biannual report | Mortgage Architects

Report presents trends in Canadians' home buying habits the last two years

Recently the Canadian Association of Accredit Mortgage Professionals (CAAMP) released its biannual report – Profile of Home Buying in Canada. Analyzing Canadians’ home-buying activities the last two years (2013-2015), the report provides interesting data and information on how Canadian homebuyers search, buy and finance their homes.

According to the report, approximately 620,000 households move into a home that they have purchased. This figure demonstrates the volume of activity and ultimately the importance that home buying and its associated activities (such as new home construction) have on the Canadian economy. As a result, the report’s findings provide insightful and useful information on the trends that are having an undeniable impact on our industry.

It is clear that the historically low interest rates that have been persistent the last few years are shaping mortgage consumer trends. For example, average interest rate in Canada is 3%, and fixed rates were the most common (72%) type of mortgage. As a result, consumers are definitely rate-sensitive yet risk averse.

The report is broken down into the following sections – Who is Buying?, What are they Buying?, Financing, The Process, Circumstances, Expectations and Opinion, and finally, the Housing and Mortgage Markets.

Below are some highlights from the report.

Who is Buying?:

• 620,000 homebuyers per year

• 45% (280,000) homebuyers are first-time homebuyers

• About one-fifth of buyers (130,000) homebuyers are on their second purchase

What are they Buying?:

• 57% (360,000 units) of homes purchased are of the single-detached variety

• 19% (120,000 units) are condominium apartments

• Average price of homes sold was approximately $347,400

• Homes priced less than $100,000 constituted only 6% of total purchases

• Homes priced above $1 million made up slightly more than 1% of sales

Financing:

• Average down payment was $119,000

• Majority of home buyers financed their home purchase via mortgages and Home Equity Lines of Credits (HELOC)

• 67% of mortgages have five-year terms

• 22.1 years is the the average amortization period

The Process:

• 52% of mortgages were from banks

• 34% of mortgages were from mortgage brokers

• First-time homebuyers are most likely to use mortgage brokers (39%) than other buyer groups

To view or download the full report, "A Profile of Home Buying in Canada" click here.