If you’re like the average Canadian, the chances are good that you’re obsessed with real estate. At least according to the latest poll, anyway.
A new survey was done by Zoocasa, an online search engine focused strictly on real estate, to see just how much Canadians think about real estate, and if we’re really as obsessed with it as we seem. It turns out, we are. According to the survey, 84 per cent of Canadians think about real estate on a regular basis.
47 per cent of those in the GTA say that they or someone they know is obsessed with real estate, while 34 per cent was the national average.
“We talk about ‘did you see what sold down the street? Or did you see someone renovating?” says Zoocasa president Carolyn Beatty. “I think it very much is a way that people talk about their neighbourhoods and talk about their neighbours.”
The survey also indicated that while we might not actually be able to fork over the money for that real estate, we sure do love to look. When it comes to window shopping, 85 per cent of Canadians did so online from the comfort of their own homes, while only 28 per cent went the more serious-buyer route of visiting an open house. 94 per cent of people say that they will search online to get more information about a home before they’ll even think about setting up an appointment to see it for themselves.
Beatty says that there’s a simple explanation for that.
“It’s like being able to go in for two or three minutes to three or four open houses in your neighbourhood and really get a sense of who’s renovated, who hasn’t renovated,” she says. “People feel a very close association with their neighbourhood.”
What do you think? Do you like to shop online for homes? Or just hop onto a real estate site to see what’s available, and what other homes comparable to your own are selling for? Do you think the results of the survey show that Canadians are obsessed with buying real estate, or just looking and knowing more about the real estate that surrounds them?
