A sizeable share of Canadians are expecting some significant shifts within the next half-year
Despite some less-than-rosy expectations for the economy, more than half of Canadians continue to believe that home prices will grow in the next half-year, according to the latest edition of the Bloomberg-Nanos Canadian Confidence Index.
As of the week ending Aug. 13, the index was at 65.06 compared to 66.63 four weeks prior. This was markedly lower than the prevailing 12-month high of 66.42.
“Although Canadian consumer confidence overall remains positive, there has been a noticeable decline in the proportion of Canadians that believe the economy will get stronger in the next six months,” said Nik Nanos, chief data scientist at Nanos Research.
This share fell from 50.84% to 41.75% over the past four weeks, while the share of Canadians who believe that the economy will become weaker instead was 24.23%. Another 27.84% said that they don’t know if the next six months will be a boon or a bane for the economy.
Read more: What will it take to bring house prices to reasonable levels?
Still, the majority of Canadians (56.81%) believe that the value of real estate in their neighbourhood will grow in the next half-year, while 29.25% are expecting home prices to remain static. Another 10.42% believe that home prices will drop during this period.
When asked about their personal finances over the past year, 25.24% said that they were better off, while 22.05% said that they were worse off. However, more than half of respondents (51.42%) said that their incomes remained the same.
The majority (55.41%) also said that they feel secure in their current jobs, and 17.52% are at least somewhat secure. Meanwhile, 4.5% said that they are somewhat not secure, and 6.1% do not feel secure.
