A growing number of home owners are looking forward to market conditions over the next six months
Canadians are becoming even more optimistic about the financial value of their residential property this year, according to the latest survey by Bloomberg and Nanos Research.
In the week ending Feb. 4, the Bloomberg-Nanos Canadian Confidence Index recovered to 58.59 compared to 57.08 four weeks prior. The 12-month high remains at 66.42.
“Canadian consumer confidence showed some positive pressure largely on an increase in the proportion of Canadians who believe that real estate values will increase in their neighbourhood,” said Nik Nanos, chief data scientist at Nanos Research.
The proportion of respondents expecting an increase in home prices in their neighbourhoods over the next six months went up sharply from 59.79% to 64.01% last week. Another 27.91% are anticipating steady prices, while just 5.63% are bracing for price declines.
Read more: Will declining consumer confidence impact the mortgage market?
This accompanied stronger sentiments towards job security. Approximately half (50.36%) of respondents said that they feel “secure” in their current employment, while 15.66% are “somewhat secure”. Only 3.58% were “somewhat unsecure”, and 6.96% said that they don’t feel secure.
At the other end of the spectrum, the share of Canadians expecting a stronger national economy in the next half-year was just 22.2%, while 44.5% are preparing for weaker performance and 26.42% believe that the economy will remain stagnant during this period.
