• This year’s most searched-for price range in Canada was between $200,000 and $300,000 — less than half the latest national average home price of $640,000.
• Home-seekers were predominantly interested in houses (62.21%), ideally with more than 3 bedrooms and 2-3 bathrooms, while more than 65.5% of Canadians browsed for homes ranging between 1,000 and 2,000 square feet.
• Millennials dominated online house-hunting: Almost 44% of searches were performed by people aged 25 to 44, with the most active home-seekers being younger Millennials in their late 20s and early 30s.
• Nationwide, online home searches were evenly split between women and men — 50.7% of home-seekers on Point2Homes.com were women, while 49.3% were men.
• With such a healthy inventory of condos in Burnaby, BC, the city is the only one where condos were more popular than houses on Point2. Conversely, the opposite was true in Ontario cities Brampton and Windsor, where as many as 84% of searches targeted houses.

If we were to sketch a profile of the Canadian homebuyer in 2022, the person tapping the screen would feel familiar: A young Millennial using a mobile phone to look for a house of about 1,000 to 2,000 square feet, for between $200,000 and $300,000, with 2-3 bathrooms and more than 3 bedrooms, and ideally with a garage and outdoor amenities. We either know them or have been in their shoes. And yet, with how volatile the housing market has been in recent years, pinning down current housing needs may yield surprises.

When the pandemic hit, online house-hunting and virtual touring became the norm. Home-seekers embraced technology more than ever and educated themselves to anticipate future needs and prepare for scenarios that they hadn’t previously considered. With that in mind, we set out to map out the current profile of the Canadian home-seeker and to provide a picture of what online house-hunting looked like across Canada and its major cities.

To do so, our analysts examined data on about 5 million searches conducted this year on Point2Homes.com. Specifically, they focused on price ranges, space needs and home features that were a must for today’s buyer. Essentially, these recent online search patterns can offer insight into the mindset of the post-pandemic homebuyer: Who are they? What are their priorities? Here’s what we found:

Arguably, Canadian homebuyers are a mixed bag of socioeconomic backgrounds with different needs and life goals. And, although Millennials made up the majority of online house-seekers in Canada (almost 44% of all home-related searches were performed by people between 25 and 44 years old), not all of them had the same motivators.

Young professionals in their late 20s to early 30s were responsible for 23.57% of online home searches. This age group is thought to be motivated to buy by a need for stability as a result of getting married or due to reaching a financial goal that allows for such a purchase. Sources place most of them as first-time buyers with an income bracket that tends to reflect their position at the start of a career.

Then, there are older Millennials (35 to 44 years old), who made up 20.39% of home-seekers in 2022. They’re seen as a cohort of repeat buyers who may be looking for something more accommodating for a growing family or an upgrade following a bump in their financial fitness.

On the other hand, we have home-seekers aged 55 to 64 — who made up almost 14% of users browsing for a home — alongside those aged 65 and older, who represented close to 10%. These prospective buyers may be just as interested in downsizing (because they no longer need all their space) as they are in relocating (either to be closer to family or prompted by accessibility needs).

75%+ of Searches Target Homes Below the National Average Home Price, Most Popular Range More Than 2 Times Lower

Canadian homebuyers are tightening their budgets in the post-pandemic landscape of increasing prices, inflation and mortgage rates. In fact, all of 2022’s most popular price ranges fell below the national average of around $640,000 and, cumulatively, they made up more than 75% of searches.

The highest percentage of home-seekers (almost 16%) were interested in homes priced between $200,000 and $300,000 — less than half the national average. And, while such housing options do exist (some parts of the country even offer homes for sale for less than $200,000), that range is the definition of wishful thinking in most of Canada.

Just as optimistic was the second-most popular price range: $300,000 to $400,000. Specifically, 14.41% of online searches conducted in 2022 targeted homes within this price limit, which is still far below the national average. Although this increased budget opens slightly more housing opportunities, it doesn’t necessarily come with more comfortable living space (since $300,000  doesn’t even cover 500 square feet in many major cities). Rather, the lower budget ranges speak volumes to the buyer’s perception of affordability in today’s housing market.

Different Keystrokes for Different Homebuying Folks

Nationwide, 62.21% of this year’s home-seekers targeted houses, showing a preference for dwellings with more than 3 bedrooms (29.31%) and 2-3 bathrooms (34.76%). And, although the majority were looking for homes priced much less than half the national median price, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Canadians are willing to downsize: As many as 65.5% of searches were aimed at homes for sale between 1,000 and 2,000 square feet.

What’s more, while searches for condos represented 14.37% of browsing sessions, searches for land on Point2 reached 23.42%. In this case, a high search volume for plots of land could indicate a buyer’s intent to build a house, thereby implicitly favoring houses over condos, once again. Of course, the most common reason for investing in land is to build a house on it, whether to sell it or hold it for a rising market. Simply put, Canadians dream of owning a house, but some dream of building it themselves.

For Thousands of Canadians, the Need for a Garage Goes Hand in Hand with a Good View

The next-most sought-after feature was a pool (be it indoor, heated or otherwise), followed by a good old basement. More “classic” amenities — such as a washer, dishwasher or dryer — ranked lower in 2022 searches so far, potentially because these were features that everyone already expected a home to have. Meanwhile, features related to fitness or hardwood flooring ranked the lowest, falling in the “nice to have” category, but not considered must-haves or deal-breakers for homebuyers.

Top City Zoom-in: Local Home Search Data Across Major Canadian Cities

Zooming in on Canada’s 30 most populous cities, we see how diverse homebuyer needs can be, depending on location. More precisely, at the city level, property type search patterns can hint at homebuyers’ willingness to compromise on location. Particularly, with houses in desirable hubs becoming increasingly untouchable due to skyrocketing prices, condos somewhere else in the area could be the next best thing.

For example, in Burnaby, BC, searches for condos represented 60.18% of searches this year. While ample condo inventory does influence these searches, condo popularity here might also be due to an interest in nearby Vancouver. After all, being 20 minutes away is what makes Burnaby a prime alternative — particularly for young professionals or young families.

On the map below, select any of the 30 most populous cities included in the analysis to find out more about their homebuying search patterns in 2022:

All of the other populous cities analyzed favored searches for houses — especially cities in Ontario, so much so that the top 12 major cities where houses were most searched for was made up entirely of Ontario entries.

Notably, more than 81% of those seeking a home in Brampton, Windsor, Burlington and Oshawa were interested in a house, as opposed to a condo — almost as much as in Oakville (79.97%) and Markham (76.12%). This preference seems to be correlated with Ontario’s bigger pockets, as buyers in several cities here were not only looking into homes priced above $1 million, but also in the $2 million to $5 million range, and even above the $5 million range.

Methodology

As one of the top real estate listing portals for the Canadian market, Point2Homes.com connects real estate agents with buyers looking for the perfect home or real estate investment. Point2 is a trustworthy source of news for professionals and journalists covering real estate topics across Canada.

• User behavior and demographic data were sourced from Point2Homes.com, based on searches conducted in the first half of the year, between January 1 and July 22, 2022.
• The study analyzed 4,814,363 searches and excludes identical searches performed by the same user in order to identify unique intent
• The study focuses on three Point2 property-related filters: house (including townhouse, duplex, triplex, and mobile home), condo, and land (searches primarily targeting land).
• Percentages and shares for each category were calculated based on the number of searches that included a certain filter from the total number of searches.
• Based on the established search volume, the analysis then zoomed in on searches conducted in the 30 largest cities in Canada (in terms of population) to establish local home-related search patterns. 

Fair use and redistribution

We encourage and freely grant permission to reuse, host or repost this article. When doing so, we only ask that you kindly attribute the authors by linking to Point2Homes.com or this page, so that your readers can learn more about this project, the research behind it and its methodology.

For an overview of the residential real estate market in some of the most popular cities in Canada, visit the links below:

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Toronto Homes for Sale
Edmonton Homes for Sale
Halifax Homes for Sale
Calgary Homes for Sale
Winnipeg Homes for Sale
Hamilton Homes for Sale
London Homes for Sale
Surrey Homes for Sale
Markham Homes for Sale
Kelowna Homes for Sale
Richmond Homes for Sale
Regina Homes for Sale

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Ottawa Homes for Sale
Oakville Homes for Sale
Montréal Homes for Sale
Saskatoon Homes for Sale
Mississauga Homes for Sale
Kamloops Homes for Sale
Abbotsford Homes for Sale
Campbell River Homes for Sale
Lethbridge Homes for Sale
Windsor Homes for Sale
Barrie Homes for Sale
Burlington Homes for Sale