Housing, wealth and debt: How are young Canadians adapting to current financial and housing pressures?

Barriers to important life cycle milestones and transitions have intensified in Canada. Sustained food inflation, elevated housing prices, and increasingly unaffordable rental costs across much of the country are casting a shadow over the homeownership dream for many households—and, in particular, for young families. Young Canadians recently reported that they are less satisfied and less hopeful about the future (Statistics Canada, 2023). In 2022, concerns over rising prices led about one third of youth to reconsider buying a home or moving to a new rental. The current environment of higher borrowing costs and elevated housing and rental costs has different implications for Canadian households depending on where they are in their economic life cycle. This article provides an overview of household balance sheets and key financial metrics for households whose primary earner is less than 35 years of age of as they adjust to current market conditions and begin to build financial resilience.