The Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA) has launched a new site, KeepTheDreamAlive.ca to lobby locals to “keep the dream of home ownership alive.”
America is not the only nation with diminishing affordability conditions, rising prices, and limited inventory. No, Canada is experiencing a similar market, and OREA is taking action to make sure those people hoping to own have the chance to do so.
“Millennials want to own homes but it’s never been tougher to achieve,” the organization notes. “Rising home prices have pushed home ownership out of reach. All their hard work and saving just isn’t enough to compete with rising prices.”
The KeepTheDreamAlive.ca site offers homeownership statistics and makes it easy to email their candidate to express the importance of the dream of ownership.
The video is moving. Prior to watching, we assumed it was another feel-good video about how neat homeownership, but to end it in broken dreams is more realistic than what you’ll see here in America.
We hope that changes. In America, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) is extremely realistic with data and they have long been very vocal on people being squeezed out of the market. And the major real estate sites paint a sunny picture of home searching and making the dream come true, but none reach as far as OREA has, to express that homeownership is simply out of reach for otherwise qualified people.
Send a link to this story to your local and state Associations as they consider their plans for marketing outreach next year. Perhaps it’s time to empower local homeowners to contact their representatives, lest they remain unaware of the big picture.
While NAR has repeatedly noted that three things will alleviate the pressure on the market (investors putting inventory on the market, builders stepping up production, and more current homeowners opting to sell), overall awareness that homeownership is out of reach for many can put a spotlight on these conditions in each market.
