First-time buyers

By MoneySense Staff on April 9, 2013
Estimated reading time: 1 minute

First-time buyers plan to save up for modest homes and be mortgage-free in 20 years. But is it realistic?

This article is 11 years old. Some details may be outdated.

A new BMO survey suggests prospective first-time home buyers in Canada plan to spend on average $300,000 on their home. They also plan to save up 48,000 or 16% on average for a down payment with the eventual goal of being mortgage-free in 20 years. While all that is admirable, whether it’s realistic is another question. A separate poll by CIBC last week found that homeowners are pushing back their mortgage-free expectations as they struggle to pay off debt. “Determining what your mortgage payments and overall costs of home ownership will look like, and then living in that financial reality for a year before entering the market, can be an effective strategy,” BMO’s Laura Parsons said in a release Tuesday. Only 19% of survey respondents said they will have to wait longer before buying as a result of government changes to mortgage regulations including reductions to amortization periods. Average spend on first home by province: NS: $211,772 NB: $156,119 NFLD: $295,588 QC: $271,912 ON: $392,962 MB: $259,397 SK: $280,915 AB: $378,685 BC: $529,922
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A friendly reminder to U.S. citizens living in Canada that they may need to file a number of annual reporting forms in both the U.S. and Canada including the U.S. Individual Income Tax Return (Form 1040) and Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (Form TD F 90-22.1). For more information read BMO Nesbitt Burns’ US Citizens Living in Canada: Income Tax Considerations. For everyone else, head over to our online Tax Centre for Canadian tax filing tips.