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December 08, 2023FIRST-TIME HOME BUYERS, 2020 Statistics Canada released new data today from the Canadian Housing Statistics Program (CHSP) for the 2020 reference year. Today's release includes updated information on first-time home buyers for Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba, British Columbia and Yukon. Data are restricted to resident owners who are persons that filed their T1 tax return for the tax year 2020 and purchased a property in a market sale from January to December 2020.
First-time homebuyer refers to a person who purchased a residential property during the reference period and did not own a residential property previously. Repeat buyers is a residual category comprised of persons who purchased a residential property during the reference period and were not first-time homebuyers.
In 2020, the number of first-time home buyers increased 21.0% to 5,830 in Nova Scotia, outpacing the 17.2% increase in repeat buyers. Across reporting provinces, British Columbia had the fastest increase in first-time buyers. New Brunswick reported notably slower growth in first-time buyers compared to other reporting provinces. Manitoba had the fastest increase in repeat buyers in 2020, but this was only slightly faster than the growth in first-time buyers.
Most first-time buyers in reporting provinces were under 35 years of age in 2020. In Nova Scotia, 61.2% of first-time buyers were below 35 years of age, while those between 35 to 54 years accounted for 34.1% of first-time buyers. All reporting provinces showed a declining share of total first-time buyers for the under 35 age group from 2018 to 2020.
In 2020, the median sale price of first-time home buyers increased 13.0% to $243,000 in Nova Scotia, outpacing the 4.9% increase in median price for repeat buyers. All reporting provinces except British Columbia reported a higher median sale price for first-time buyers compared to repeat buyers. In Nova Scotia, the median sale price for first-time buyers was 27.2% higher than for repeat buyers. According to Statistics Canada, the difference in median sale price reflected in part a greater concentration of first-time purchases in urban areas, where prices tend to be higher.
Across Nova Scotia in 2020, the number of first-time buyers increased the fastest in Kentville Census Agglomeration (CA) and Cape Breton regional municipality. First-time buyer growth notably outpaced growth in repeat buyers in both communities. Truro reported both the fast increase in repeat buyers and slowest increase in first time buyers. Within the Halifax Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) first-time buyers increased 22.3%, while the number of repeat buyers increased 12.2%.
Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Housing Statistics Program: First-time homebuyers, 2020
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