Canadians confident in housing, but most not ready to buy

OTTAWA — Survey results suggest most Canadians feel now is a great time to buy a home, but not for them personally.

A poll done for Royal Bank of Canada found 59 per cent of those asked said now is the time to get into the housing market, as opposed to waiting until next year. That was up four percentage points from when the same question was asked in a survey a year earlier.

However, 73 per cent said they are unlikely to buy a home within the next two years, up two points from the previous year.

"There's a mix of opinions on the housing market as Canadians still feel confident about real estate but are a little uncertain about where the market is heading and when it makes sense to buy," Marcia Moffat, RBC's head of home equity financing, said in a statement.

Eighty-eight per cent considered housing a good investment, 68 per cent said the value of their homes had increased over the last two years, but just 47 per cent said housing prices would be higher a year from now.

The survey was done with 2,006 adult Canadians in an online panel by Ipsos Reid between Jan. 24 and 30. A random sample this size would have accurately represented the population within two percentage points, 19 times out of 20, RBC said.

Meanwhile, real estate firm Royal LePage released a report Thursday saying housing prices in Canada were up in the early part of this year after an "unusually high" number of sales resulted in tight inventories. Record-low mortgage rates at less than thee per cent, on five-year fixed plans, were part of reason why activity was so high, Royal LePage said.

It said the average price of a standard two-storey home in the first quarter was $398,282, up five per cent from a year earlier. The average bungalow price was up 4.4 per cent to $356,306, while the going rate for a condominium rose 2.2 per cent to $243,153.

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