Presented without comment

Some fascinating details yesterday in Statistics Canada's always-insightful The Daily.

A study on home ownership among young Canadians reveal interesting data on housing landscape for first-time buyers across the country. I'd quibble with classing everyone in the age range of 25-39 as a "young adult" but in general, the study paints an undeniable picture -- fewer and fewer people starting out in their independent lives own their own homes.

Nationally, 6 out of every 10 young people not living at home owned their place of residence, but the numbers showed a clear bias from rural to urban environments. 71% of rural young people owned their homes, while in the city of Toronto, the number was barely over half, at 53%.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the chasm got greater the lower down the socioeconomic spectrum. 40% of rural young adults making less than $30,000 a year managed to own their own homes, whereas only 16% of urban dwellers making that much managed the same feat (and all I can say is, I'd like to meet them...)

The study similarly found that the probability of home ownership was even less for children of immigrants.

I thought this might be representative of some sort of shifting cultural attitude -- perhaps that home ownership is not as important to today's young people as it was to their parents -- but the study also found that three-quarters of respondents said home ownership was "very important" to them.

And surprises in there for anyone?