What is Real Estate

Writen by Luigi Frascati

Hey boys, stop watching the hockey game: I have got news for you. In fact I have got a good news and a bad news. The good news is that you are still classified as the family breadwinners. The bad news is that you don't get to eat any bread no more. And there is a really, really bad news boys – but I am going to tell you last, because I am packing up …

A recent study conducted by Canada Housing Mortgage Corporation indicates that women across Canada have now more purchasing power than ever. Canadian women, although not paid quite at par as their male counterparts, nevertheless make more money than ever before and are closing the income-gender gap very fast. They also show more remarked entrepreneurial skills and are more likely than men to sign an offer to purchase, especially one involving residential real estate. They also make more responsible property owners and are three times less likely to be foreclosed upon than men. Overall, Canadian women represent an increasingly powerful key market group and are a major force in the Canadian housing market.

More specifically, Canada Housing Mortgage Corporation details the following trait characteristics of ladies buyers:

[ ] Single women are now twice as likely to buy a home as men and they have an expensive taste too. Women are the largest condo buyers by dollar volume in downtown sections of large metropolitan centers, typically Toronto and Vancouver. They love luxury condominiums and, in any event, women will stretch their purchasing capacity to the limit. They believe that, when it comes to real estate, more expensive is a better investment in the long run.

[ ] Women are buying at a faster rate than the general population and are more likely to hold on their capital assets than men. Moreover, Canada Housing Mortgage Corporation reports that young ladies, whether married or not, believe in long term investments, thus proving outmoded the previous finding that the typical Canadian household changes home every seven years.

[ ] In total, all women (single, married, divorced and widowed) control a whopping eighty-five percent of all residential purchase decisions. This includes not only decision making as it relates to cosmetics such as the style of a home, colors and location, but it involves such factors as 'important' financial decisions the likes of type and length of financing, amounts of down-payment and terms of contract of purchase and sale – previously the almost exclusive domain of men.

[ ] Canadian women are twice as likely as men to have a credit rating from good to excellent and will go the extra length to keep it that way. For this reason, women are beginning to replace men as the 'preferred customers' of bankers and mortgage brokers alike.

And there is also a fifth trait characteristic of ladies purchasers, a real bad news, boys – but I am going to tell you last because I am packing up …

At the roots of this substantial change in the real estate landscape is the fact that in the period from 1994 to 2004 the number of males earning more than CAD $75,000 gross per year has increased twenty-five percent, but the number of women earning more than CAD $75,000 has increased sixty-two percent over the same period. This is the main reason why, according to the report, women want to get the best possible investment. They want to build up equity rather than paying rent and a landlord's mortgage – a concept that men seem to begin to underestimate.

But wait to hear the real bad news, boys – I will tell you in a second, because I am pretty much finished packing up …

Furthermore, men are increasingly losing score in a field that has been their own exclusive domain for ages. As Home Depot (Canada) knows very well, fully fifty percent of purchases made there are from women. Canadian women appear to be more and more skilled at such typical 'manly' tasks as sheet-rocking, plastering, fixing plumbing and electrical and even window-framing. Overall, they are no longer intimidated by repairs and maintenance.

There it is. I am finished packing, now. Before I go to the airport to catch my flight, here is the fifth news, boys:

[ ] There are 32,764 single women in Canada who own more than two properties, thirty-eight percent of which are … lawyers.

That's it. I'm moving to South America. Hasta la vista, baby …

Luigi Frascati

Luigi Frascati is a Real Estate Agent based in Vancouver, British Columbia. He holds a Bachelor Degree in Economics and maintains a weblog entitled the Real Estate Chronicle at http://wwwrealestatechronicle.blogspot.com where you can find the full collection of his articles. Luigi is associated with the Sutton Group, the largest real estate organization in Canada, and is based with Sutton-Centre Realty in Burnaby, BC.

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