Only two in 10 households own their homes in Nunavut, vs nearly seven in 10 elsewhere in Canada

By NUNATSIAQ NEWS

If you live in Nunavut, you’re at least three times less likely than other Canadians to live in a home that you own.

That’s according to new data from Statistics Canada, which released its 2011 National Household Survey Sept. 11.

This survey shows that 69 per cent of households in Canada owned their dwelling — but only 21 per cent in Nunavut.

The survey, conducted on a voluntary basis, also reveals that about 13.7 tenant households nation-wide lived in subsidized housing.

That figure is much higher in Nunavut where more than half the population lives in subsidized housing — 4,400 out of Nunavut’s total stock of 9,400 units (according to the 2010 Nunavut Household Survey) are social housing, where rents are heavily subsidized.

The new survey also says the average monthly shelter cost paid in 2011 by households in Canada was $1,050 — again that’s much lower than rents or mortgages paid by Nunavummiut, unless they live in social housing units.

In 2010, Iqaluit renters paid an average of $2,265 a month in the private rental market for a two-bedroom apartment in Nunavut’s capital, according to the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp.

StatsCan found households that owned their dwelling paid an average monthly shelter cost of $1,141.

And there again, the cost of home ownership in Nunavut is much more — 31 per cent higher in Nunavut than in southern Canada, a Nunavut economic forum document said.