PERSONAL CHOICE NEWSLETTER – DECEMBER 2019
First results from the Canadian Housing Survey, 2018
Most Canadian households (85.6%) were satisfied or very satisfied with their neighbourhood in 2018, but the level of satisfaction varied depending on where they lived. Among Canada’s 10 largest census metropolitan areas (CMAs), for example, satisfaction with their neighbourhood ranged from 82.2% of households in Toronto to 92.5% in Québec.
Most households (82.6%) were also satisfied with their dwelling. Households in the two largest and most expensive CMAs of Toronto and Vancouver reported the lowest level of satisfaction with their dwelling (both at 77.0%), while households in Québec (87.8%) were most likely to be satisfied.
A whole lot of moving going on
Canada is a nation of movers. About half of Canadian households have either moved within the past five years or intend to do so within the next five.
Just over one-third of households (35.0%) had moved within the five years prior to the survey. Households in Nunavut (46.0%) were the mostly likely to have moved within the past five years, while households in Newfoundland and Labrador (23.0%) were the least likely to have done so.
The most common reason for moving—reported by 9.7% of households—was to upgrade to a better quality home. This was followed by moving to a more desirable neighbourhood (7.0%), becoming a homeowner (6.4%), moving because of a change in household size (6.3%) or to lower housing costs (5.0%).
Looking forward, about one-fifth of Canadian households intend to move in the next five years, ranging from 12.8% of households in Newfoundland and Labrador to 29.0% of households in the Northwest Territories.
Over half a million Canadian households are living in social and affordable housing
Social and affordable housing provides assistance to low or moderate income households. Over 1 in 10 renters (13.5%) nationally—or 628,700 Canadian households—were living in social and affordable housing in 2018.
Nationally, three-quarters of renter households in Nunavut (75.0%) were living in social and affordable housing in 2018, almost double the proportion in the Northwest Territories (38.0%) and more than seven times that in Quebec (10.2%).