As real estate prices rise sharply across the country, more boomers seem to be focusing on property as an investment vehicle.
According to the most recent Statistics Canada Survey of Financial Security, "a significant change in the composition of assets during this six-year period was growth investments in real estate such as cottages, timeshares, rental properties and other commercial properties."
The value of real estate holdings, excluding principal residences, increased by 80.5 per cent between 1999 and 2005. This, notes the survey, was "by far the largest rate of growth of any asset type."
Realtor Brent McElheran of Royal LePage Team Realty, who specializes in the urban condo market, frequently deals with boomers purchasing investment properties and pieds-a-terre (a house or apartment that one keeps as somewhere to stay on occasional visits) in downtown Ottawa.
"Some are downsizing, but many of my clients are buying condominiums as investment properties to rent out," he says.
Other buyers buy and sell without renting, speculating the market will continue to rise, as it has done over the last decade. According to the Canadian Real Estate Association, the average selling price of a house across the country was $324,312 in the first three quarters of 2007, almost double the average $154,606 selling price of 1997.
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REM: Would like to know where all these boomers are investing in real estate that has cash flow - certainly not Vancouver BC.
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