Alyssa Hirose
Is it actually possible to buy a home before you turn 30?
Mix and Match Studio / Shutterstock
The Topline
- Prime Minister Mark Carney’s “Build Canada Homes” federal agency aims to help young Canadians buy homes by investing $13 billion in affordable housing
- Projections show that Canada’s housing market is cooling , potentially making room for young people to purchase homes
- At the same time, many young Canadians have already given up on ever owning a home
Nope sweet home
Sorry, young people: you may have mastered the art of sobriety , but not buying booze won’t save you enough money for a down payment. Purchasing a home before the age of thirty isn’t as easy as it was fifty – or even twenty – years ago.
In fact, considering the skyrocketing rise of housing prices compared to the mediocre rise in wage growth, it’s impossible.
Homes are expensive. Restaurants are expensive. Groceries are expensive. Some suggest that the dream of homeownership is totally dead , as young people choose to spend their money on other things ( travel , education, Labubus ) and rent indefinitely. The flexibility that renting provides, coupled with the lack of upfront costs, makes it a more favourable option for the under-thirties… even if they have to live with a roommate .
Sure, housing prices have dropped a bit, but has that actually made a difference? For argument’s sake, let’s crunch the numbers:
Let’s say I’m a 29-year-old B.C. man and my income is the average $63,000 .
(If I were a woman, which I am, I would be making about 17k less, but let’s not get bogged down by the realities of the patriarchy).
Let’s say I empty my bank account, which has the average $43,000 saved, for my down payment. Let’s say my monthly expenses are $1500. Let’s say I’m a dreamer and I want to buy in Vancouver.
According to TD’s mortgage calculator , I can afford a home worth up to $173,000.
That’s enough to buy an $89,000 home in Yaletown … oh wait, that’s a parking spot.
Here’s a $169,999 listing for… a wine cellar.
Those are the cheapest options on the market right now. The most affordable home with real walls and a bathroom is a 420 square-foot Yaletown condo with no bedrooms or laundry. It’s $275,000. If my math is right, $275,000 is more than $173,000, so I can’t afford to buy a home. And I’m a pretend man!
No wonder some people choose to just live in a van .
Hope, sweet hope
Home ownership feels out of reach for many young Canadians, but having the grand privilege of being shackled to a mortgage before the age of thirty isn’t totally preposterous.
For the spoiled among us, there’s always the Bank of Mom and Dad – but let’s forget about that obvious (and kinda cheating) strategy. Some young people actually have more money than their boomer parents. No, most can’t afford a $2M condo in downtown Vancouver , but they might be able to afford a $119,000 home in Calgary .
There are affordable places to live in Canada. Those places might not have any cool bars or hot restaurants or any of your family or friends, but they do have homes you can buy and still have money left over to travel to cities that do have bars, restaurants and loved ones.
There is some optimistic data for the future. Home prices are expected to fall in 2026, and the government’s GST break for first-time homebuyers could make a real difference for folks entering the market.
Cuts to immigration , meanwhile, have eased some stress on the market. Plus, fewer Canadians are seeing condos as an investment , meaning that there’s more opportunity for young people to buy them to, you know, actually live in.
When it comes to the actual homes themselves, new manufacturing strategies that streamline building (like prefab homes ) are a promising step towards making housing more affordable.
Maybe, home ownership simply requires some – okay, a lot – of sacrifice. It’s more than the now-cliche belief that giving up avocado toast will make you rich: young people are choosing to forgo other big life expenses, like having a wedding or starting a family or travelling , in order to make that down payment. They’re proving that home ownership is possible, but it might cost you your lifestyle.
Speaking of lifestyle, if you manage to find a friend you trust with more than just your intense “ hear me out ” crush (mine isScar’s son in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, thanks for asking), co-ownership could be the answer. Folks in their 20s and 30s are buying homes with their friends in order to get their foot in the door. It’s a risky option (complicating a friendship with a huge investment isn’t very hakuna matata) but it is an option.
