Owning, renting, or living with parents? Changing housing situations among Canadian young adults, 2001 to 2011

Abstract

Homeownership is a central component of wealth, but many young adults today struggle to enter the housing market, opting to rent or live at home with their parents instead. Despite these trends, few recent Canadian studies have addressed the housing arrangements of young adults. We use pooled cross-sectional General Social Survey data from 2001 to 2011 to analyze three types of housing arrangements among 18- to 35-year-olds. Findings show that although the proportion of young adults living at home increased dramatically since 2001 and the proportion renting declined, rates of homeownership among young adults remained fairly constant over the three waves. Changes over time were most dramatic among the youngest age group of 18- to 24-year-olds, first-generation immigrants, and young adults with higher levels of education. Findings further demonstrate persistent socioeconomic and demographic disparities between young adults who can move out of their parents’ homes and into homeownership and those who either remain at home or become renters, with important repercussions on lifetime wealth inequality.