TORONTO – Since Ipsos and the Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA)’s last Home Ownership Index poll six months ago, Ontario residents’ outlook on real estate appears to have grown even brighter, with the latest version showing increased confidence among Ontarians – especially at the neighbourhood level.
Polled between May 31 and June 2, 2016, 50 per cent of Ontario’s residents see their neighbourhood real estate market as “significantly stronger” compared to one year ago.
50 per cent of respondents agreed that their local market is stronger now than it was one year ago. An even higher number – 52 per cent – believe the local market will be even stronger in the next ten years.
When asked about the market on a provincial scale, respondents replied similarly: 48 per cent believe it is stronger than last year, and an equal percentage believe it will be stronger within the next decade.
This latest poll’s results also revealed a few other insights about Ontario residents’ views on real estate:
- When asked to rate market favourability on a scale of one to 10, 59 per cent rank their city or town as “favourable” (six to 10 points), while 57 per cent ranked their neighbourhood at between seven and 10.
- 56 per cent gave the province’s market a score of six or greater.
- Residents’ real estate outlook is strongly related to their confidence in the local economy. (63 per cent of polled Ontarians see the economy in their city or town as “good,” rating it at least six on a scale of 10.)
In the Greater Toronto Area, 70 per cent of residents described the state of their local real estate market as “good” – reflecting a solid increase from 66 per cent last year.
The recent poll’s responses show a dramatic increase in real estate confidence over the previous round of surveys conducted in November 2015, with Ipsos reporting that the Ontario Homeownership Index figure – defined by OREA as a “composite measure designed to reflect Ontarians’ overall views of the residential real estate market” – – has “surged” by 27 points to an impressive 129.
