Canadians are a Restless Bunch

You’d think that finding the home of your dreams, getting yourself all settled in, and finding a way to comfortably pay your mortgage every month would be enough for most people. But we Canadians aren’t happy with that. We want bigger, better, more, more, more! At least, that’s what a survey recently done by TD Canada Trust has found out.
The results of the survey have now been published in the TD’s Repeat Home Buyer Report; and the survey found that 42% of Canadians who are repeat buyers have purchased a home, been happy in it for a little while, and then found that they needed to move on. Sometimes it’s because the home doesn’t have enough bedrooms, or because it’s not in the condition they thought it was. Whatever the reasons for packing up and moving on, one thing is clear – it’s not because of high mortgage payments that people want to move. In fact, these repeat buyers are usually moving on to greener pastures because they are, in fact, greener. These pastures are filled with bigger homes that have more features and all the modern amenities. And with all of that comes a bigger mortgage. But, repeat buyers are an insistent bunch, and they’re more likely to be okay with that higher mortgage, because they’re not willing to compromise on what they want.
And what is that exactly, aside from a bigger home? A whopping one-third of repeat buyers in the survey said that a home’s layout was the most important thing to them. It seems that Canadians are really into open-concept and “flowing” floor plans. Another nearly one-third of home buyers said that the features in the home were most important, with their focus on things like central air, built-in everything, and walk-in closets. Surprisingly, the size of the home was one of the lesser factors when Canadians decided that it was time to move on up – only 28% of Canadians said that it was the number of bedrooms that would ultimately affect the decision to buy a new home.
And while it may seem that this “give me, give me” attitude would weaken an economy and force people into debt with mortgages that they can’t afford, in fact the opposite is true. These repeat buyers could be some of the reason why Canada didn’t fall into a deep recession like our neighbours to the south. 78% of repeat home buyers surveyed said that they would sell their home for more than the asking price. That’s up from 66% in 2010. So there’s no need to worry that repeat buyers are taxing an economy that’s just starting to make its comeback; or that Canadians soon won’t be able to afford the mortgages on those new homes. All the survey is really telling us is something that we already knew – Canadians expect the best, and we won’t stop until we get it.