Attitudes are changing in a key slice of the home-buying population

Terrence Belford – Globe and Mail

If you follow the new homes market then you know that for the past six months it has been young first-time buyers who are accounting for the lion’s share of sales. But how well does the housing industry really know what 18 to 34 year olds want in a home?

A survey released by TD Canada Trust last month may offer some surprises. Chief among them is that young people would much prefer an older single family house that they could fix up to anything else on the market.

Nor do they look at paying off their mortgage with any particular urgency, placing them in sharp contrast with previous generations. And not surprising, perhaps, more than a third of them looked to mom and dad or maybe grandma and grandpa to make that first home purchase come true.

“There has been a distinct shift in attitude among today’s 18 to 34 age group from those 55 and older when it comes to buying that first home,” says Chris Wisniewski, group product manager in TD Canada Trust’s real estate secured lending unit. “Some of those changes may simply be due to the prices of homes of all kinds today. Some may be because they have been exposed more to the basics of personal finance since they were young.”

And some may be anybody’s guess.

Take choice of housing. The cross-Canada survey says young people prefer city living (64% versus 50% of that 55 plus age group, when they were buying their first home) and that their first purchase was a single family house not a condo or row house (65%). Granted 85% of those in that 55 and over age group said their first home was a detached house.

City life also means older homes. Almost 48% of the young chose a house that was at least 21 years old and 35% said they chose a house they could then fix up. That too is a big leap from want their elders did. In that 55 plus age group only 24% said their first home was a fixer-upper.

“A lot of people would assume younger people living in a city would naturally choose affordable condos. This study shows that just is not happening,” says Ms. Wisniewski. “It would also suggest that price determines what they buy so that means older homes they plan on renovating.

So where is the money coming from? Family, of course; 36% of young buyers said they could not have bought that first home without financial help from family. The oldies were more self reliant and probably did not have parents as well heeled as today’s baby boomers. Only 16% of those 55 plus got family help with their first home.

Nor do many of them stay within the original budget. Almost a third of the 18 to 34 group said their first home was more expensive than they originally planned. The 55-plus group was far better at staying within spending limits. Only 18% of them paid more than they intended.

They may have had to borrow from or ask mom and dad to give them money for the down payment but they are not in as great a rush to pay down mortgages as their parents were, the survey shows. Just 49% of young home buyers rated paying off a mortgage as a top priority compared with 64% of their parents’ generation.

The main impetus for buying that first home is also surprising. It was not because they were getting married or about to have kids. Those reasons both ranked in low double digits.

The 18 to 34 years olds simply thought they were financially ready – having to count on help from mom and dad aside – and it would prove to be a good investment. Just over half (51%) cited being financially ready versus 37% of the older generation when they bought their first home.

Now back to buying older homes – fixer-uppers. Royal Bank of Canada surveyed 2,050 Canadians who planned on doing home renovations within the next two years in the second week of September. They found 63% of them would take advantage of the federal government’s home renovation tax credit and 46% of them had already done so.

What is more 76% have paid or plan to pay for the work with cash or savings, versus 70% in 2008. Just 24% will put it on their credit card versus 32% last year.

“It is not surprising that Canadian renovators are getting smarter with renovation financing and voiding debt in light of the current economy,” says Marcia Moffat, head of home equity financing at RBC.

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Contact Laurin Jeffrey for more information  –  416-388-1960

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