Is Gateway City Clustering behind Canada’s Declining Immigrant Homeownership Rates?

Michael Haan, University of Alberta

Recently, homeownership rates have been dropping for Canadian immigrants. These declines, though substantial on their own, are particularly striking when they’re read alongside the trends of the Canadian-born, who’ve experienced a comparative surge in recent years. Given that immigrants overwhelmingly cluster in Canada’s ‘gateway’ census metropolitan areas (Toronto, Montréal, and Vancouver), this paper uses 2-stage least squares regression techniques and the 2001 census of Canada to identify whether a shift out of Toronto, Montréal, and Vancouver would improve national immigrant homeownership rates. The results show that although homeownership propensities are higher for those who live outside of gateway cities, these differences dissolve once location choice endogeneity is addressed, suggesting that relocation policies are unlikely to yield dramatic national gains.