The growing wealth gap really comes down to one thing: housing. New data from Statistics Canada last week made this clearer than ever. It showed that a family who owns a home, has no pension, and whose primary earner is between 55 and 64 has a median net worth of $914,000. But for the same family renting a home, their median net worth is just $11,900 — 98.7% less. It might be surprising to learn how much wealthier homeowners are, especially with all the news about mortgage delinquencies lately. But here's the reality: renters generally earn less than homeowners and have been dealing with rising rents across the country. Even though some homeowners are seeing their mortgage payments going up, they tend to have higher incomes, more savings, and — thanks to rising home prices — more wealth as their homes increase in value. The bottom line? Homeownership has become the biggest driver of wealth in Canada today, even more so than pension savings.
