For families who own one, the home is usually the biggest item on the balance sheet, and mortgages make up most of what Canadian households owe. This page looks at household net worth through that lens: how much of Canadian wealth is housing, how the home’s share of family assets has moved since 1999, how it differs by age and between owners and renters, and what that concentration means when prices or rates move. It is part of our housing market analysis.
Housing’s share of household wealth now
Statistics Canada’s national balance sheet puts a value on everything Canadian households own. In the second quarter of 2026:
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Household net worth (all assets minus all debts) | $19.1 trillion |
| Value of household residential real estate | $8,523.3 billion |
| Residential real estate as a share of net worth (computed) | 44.6% |
| Household debt as a share of total assets | 14.8% |
| Mortgages as a share of household debt | almost three-quarters |
Source: Statistics Canada, National balance sheet and financial flow accounts. The share of net worth is the real estate value divided by net worth; it compares the gross value of homes with wealth after all debts, so it is not the same as home equity.
Counted the other way, as equity net of mortgages, Statistics Canada estimates that real estate made up 42% of household wealth in 2023, and nearly half of the wealth of younger families (source). Stock markets move the balance too: in the second quarter of 2026 households held $1.24 in financial assets for every dollar of non-financial assets such as real estate.
The home’s share of family assets since 1999
The Survey of Financial Security (SFS) measures the same thing family by family. The table shows, for all Canadian families, the share that own their home, the home’s share of all family assets, and the mortgage as a share of home value. The figures are ratios of values in constant dollars, so survey years compare directly.
| Survey year | Families owning their home | Home as a share of all family assets (computed) | Mortgage as a share of home value (computed) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 59.6% | 31.6% | 27.3% |
| 2005 | 61.9% | 33.4% | 25.8% |
| 2012 | 62.5% | 34.6% | 25.2% |
| 2016 | 61.7% | 36.1% | 25.7% |
| 2019 | 61.9% | 36.7% | 24.3% |
| 2023 | 64.7% | 38.2% | 21.2% |
Source: Statistics Canada, table 11-10-0016-01, Survey of Financial Security. Computed from the table: the home’s share is the average home value of owning families times the share of families that own, divided by the average total assets of all families; the mortgage share is the same calculation for mortgages on the home, divided by the total value of homes. Only the family’s principal residence is counted; cottages and rental properties are not.
Between the 1999 and 2023 surveys, two things moved together. The home became a bigger part of the typical family’s balance sheet as prices rose, and the mortgage became a smaller part of the home’s value across all families, because long-time owners’ equity grew with prices. That second figure is an average over every owner, including those with no mortgage at all, so it hides how leveraged recent buyers are.
By age: concentration and leverage
The same calculation by the age of the family’s main earner, for 2023:
| Age of main earner | Families owning their home | Home as a share of all family assets (computed) | Mortgage as a share of home value (computed) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 35 | 44.4% | 44.8% | 37.3% |
| 35 to 44 | 63.3% | 44.3% | 38.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 72.9% | 39.3% | 25.9% |
| 55 to 64 | 71.8% | 34.8% | 14.4% |
| 65 and over | 70.3% | 34.8% | 4.7% |
Source: Statistics Canada, table 11-10-0016-01, computed as in the table above.
For families under 45, the home is a large part of everything they own and a large part of its value is still owed to the lender, so a change in home prices moves their net worth more than it moves an older owner’s. Families aged 65 and over own their homes largely outright; for them the risk is less about debt and more about having much of their wealth in one asset they live in.
Owners vs renters
In 2023, renters made up 35% of Canadian families and 56% of families under 35. Because the home is such a large share of owners’ assets, the wealth gap between owners and renters is wide: among families under 35, owners’ median net worth was $457,100 against $44,000 for non-owners. The full comparison by age and pension status, and how the gap shapes each generation’s chances of buying, is in the generational homeownership gap.
Concentration and leverage risk
Having much of a family’s wealth in one home carries risks that a spread of financial assets does not:
- Price risk. A change in local home prices changes the family’s net worth almost one for one, and the effect is magnified by the mortgage (see the example below). Regional markets can move very differently from the national average.
- Leverage. The mortgage stays the same size when the home’s value falls. Mortgages are almost three-quarters of household debt (the second quarter of 2026); how much Canadians owe, and how many mortgages renew at higher rates, is covered in Canadian mortgage debt statistics.
- Rate risk. Higher interest rates raise payments at renewal and can lower what buyers will pay for a home.
- Liquidity. A home can’t be sold a piece at a time; tapping the equity means selling, refinancing or borrowing against it with a home equity line of credit or a reverse mortgage.
How leverage magnifies a price change. Take a home worth $600,000 with a mortgage of $480,000, so the owner’s equity is $120,000. If the home’s value falls by 10%, it loses $60,000, and all of that comes off the equity: 50% of it. An owner with no mortgage loses the same $60,000, which is 10% of their home equity.
At the national level, residential real estate was worth $8,523.3 billion in the second quarter of 2026, so each 1% change in home values moves household wealth by about $85 billion.
Net worth by age, province and the median
This page covers the housing side of household wealth. For the overall figures: the median Canadian family had a net worth of $519,700 in 2023 and the average was $995,900, the average being pulled up by the wealthiest families. Net worth by age gives the median and average for each age group and province, and average vs median net worth explains the gap and how wealth is distributed. The debt side, including the household debt-to-income ratio, is in average household debt in Canada.
Related pages
Sources
The figures and rules on this page come from these sources, last checked against them between September 25, 2026 and October 6, 2026. How we check facts.
- Statistics Canada: Statistics Canada
- Statistics Canada: Statistics Canada
- Statistics Canada: Assets and debts held by economic family type, by age group, Canada, provinces and…
- Statistics Canada: The Daily — Survey of Financial Security, 2023