Make Sacrifices: Vacation plans shelved in favour of buying house
Bradley Bouzane, Canwest News Service

Most Canadians would give up their vacations if it meant owning a home sooner, according to a new report.

According to the report, vacation budgets were high on the list of things to cut in order to buy a home. Sacrificing vacations also remained a common solution to adjust to lost income, such as layoffs or reductions in hours.

The First-Time Homebuyer's Monitor, made public yesterday by Genworth Financial Canada, said 68 per cent of Canadians polled were willing to delay major purchases to allow them to buy a house.

Once many Canadians own homes, however, they seem open to other options - including taking on a second job or forgoing vacations - in order to keep up on mortgage payments.

According to the report, vacation budgets were high on the list of things to cut in order to buy a home. Sacrificing vacations also remained a common solution to adjust to lost income, such as layoffs or reductions in hours.

Fifty-one per cent of the 2,000 people interviewed in September said they would give up vacations if it meant they could own a home sooner. About 82 per cent of the group, whose results were combined with online research data from May 2009, said they would cut out vacation spending if times got tough.

"Canadian homebuyers know they need to make sacrifices, such as delaying major purchases, giving up vacations or working a second job, until they can afford to purchase a home," Stephen Dupuis, president and CEO of the Building Industry and Land Development Association, said in the report.

"But they are also willing to do the little things, as well, from packing a lunch to foregoing non-essential purchases to simply doing without - whatever it takes to get their foot in the door."

Twenty-eight-year-old Michael Carr of Ottawa, who bought a home with his girlfriend this spring in the city's west end, was no exception.

"Our vacations were closer to home," Carr said. "We'd just go to the cottage instead of travelling somewhere else, so we saved a lot of money that way.

"We're not withholding anything now. We have a budget and we stick to that, so we're not starving ourselves of anything."

After a four-month search that included viewing many homes, the couple was able to comfortably cushion the increase from rent to mortgage payments, because advance thinking eased the financial burden when their deal closed in July.

"We didn't really have to sacrifice anything," Carr said.