Nearly 1 in 4 Canadian Households Face Unaffordable Housing Costs: StatCan

A rental sign is seen outside a building in Ottawa, on April 30, 2020. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

Nearly one-quarter of Canadian households lived in unaffordable housing in 2024, while a similar proportion reported financial difficulties due to increases in rent or mortgage payments, according to new Statistics Canada data.

In 2024, 23.2 percent of Canadian households spent 30 percent or more of their income on shelter costs, up from 22 percent in 2022, according to results from the 2024 Canadian Housing Survey.

Statistics Canada released the survey data on Sept. 21. The Canadian Housing Survey is conducted in partnership with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

The data showed that 33.7 percent of renters and 17.4 percent of homeowners lived in unaffordable housing, a gap that has remained stable since 2018, when the survey began.

“More than one-quarter (26.1%) of homeowners with mortgages lived in unaffordable housing, up from 23.6% in 2022,” the report said. “This drove the overall increase in the share of households in unaffordable housing, as renters living in market rental units saw no change in their unaffordability rate over the same period.”

In 2024, 36.6 percent of households were homeowners with a mortgage, 27.8 percent were homeowners without a mortgage, and 31.3 percent were renters in the private market, the data showed.

Housing Dissatisfaction

The survey examined households’ perceptions of housing affordability and whether they experienced financial difficulties as a result of rising housing costs.

The data showed that 27.9 percent of households reported experiencing financial difficulties over the previous 12 months due to increases in rent or mortgage payments, up from 22.6 percent in 2022.

The increase in financial difficulties came alongside growing dissatisfaction with housing affordability. In 2024, 23.3 percent of households said they were “dissatisfied or very dissatisfied” with housing affordability, up from 14.5 percent in 2022 and 11.1 percent in 2018, the report said.

Among homeowners with mortgages, 28.2 percent reported being dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with housing affordability in 2024, up from previous years. That was similar to the 28.9 percent reported among renters in market rental housing, a group the report said has “historically had higher rates of dissatisfaction with affordability.”

Furthermore, 36.2 percent of homeowners with mortgages reported experiencing financial difficulties due to higher mortgage payments, up from 28.3 percent in 2022, the data showed.

In 2024, 10.6 percent of Canadian households, or 1.74 million, were recent first-time homebuyers (FTHBs), having purchased their first home between 2019 and 2023—a period of record-high home sales, the report said.

The share of FTHBs living in unaffordable housing rose from 24.9 percent in 2018 to 27.4 percent in 2024, while 34.1 percent reported financial difficulties from higher mortgage payments, up from 16.4 percent.

Dissatisfaction with housing affordability also rose among the cohort, with 33.1 percent of FTHBs reporting they were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied in 2024, compared with 13.4 percent in 2018.

The survey found that homeownership remains a goal for most renters, with 85.5 percent of those aged 25 to 39 saying owning a home within the next five to 10 years is important or somewhat important.