Ethno-racial and nativity differences in the likelihood of living in affordable housing in Canada

Kate H. Choi and Sagi Ramaj

Housing Studies, 2024, vol. 39, issue 9, 2210-2233

Abstract: Canadians are experiencing a housing affordability crisis, but little attention has been paid to its ethno-racial and nativity disparities. Using data from the 2016 Canadian Census, we assess whether the likelihood of living in unaffordable housing (i.e. spending 30% or more of pretax income on housing costs) varies by ethno-race and nativity status, and identify the social factors contributing to these differences. We show that Middle Eastern and North Africans (MENAs) are most, and Whites are least, likely to live in unaffordable housing. Results from decomposition analyses suggest that MENA individuals’ high unaffordable housing rates are largely attributable to their high unemployment rates. The high unaffordable housing rates of East and South Asians are mainly associated with their higher propensity to live in urban areas with expensive housing. Immigrants are generally more likely than Canadian-born co-ethnics to live in unaffordable housing. Blacks and Southeast Asians are exceptions. As many governments take steps to address housing affordability crises, they should curtail the influence of structural barriers that preclude ethno-racial minorities from living in affordable housing.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/02673037.2023.2170988 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:chosxx:v:39:y:2024:i:9:p:2210-2233

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/chos20

DOI: 10.1080/02673037.2023.2170988

Access Statistics for this article

Housing Studies is currently edited by Chris Leishman, Moira Munro, Ray Forrest, Alex Schwartz, Hal Pawson and John Flint

More articles in Housing Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().