The Effect of Household Characteristics on the Probability of Homeownership in Canada

Abstract

I study the probability of owning a home for Canadian households and how it is related to the characteristics of households. The characteristics considered include the respondent’s marital status, age, household income before taxes, employment status, the number of vehicles owned, the size of the household and the province of residence. I exploit data from the Survey of Household Spending in 2009. A logit model is estimated to capture the effect of the household characteristics. The main finding is that the probability of owning a home increases as the respondent gets older. A married respondent is more likely to own a home than an unmarried respondent. People with higher incomes are also more likely to own a home. The probability of owning a dwelling increases when vehicles are owned by the household. Province of residence is also an important factor which affects homeownership. However, the respondent’s level of educational attainment and the size of the household do not affect the probability of homeownership.