Turbulent economic times haven’t stopped Canadians from wanting a home to call their own, suggests the Ninth Annual RBC Royal Bank Housing Study.

A quarter of Canadians say they are likely to buy a home in the next two years, with 12% of those people planning to make the purchase in the next six months. In effect, the research suggests that about 7% of the entire population is planning to move some time in the next year.

“These results are encouraging. They suggest that many Canadians are not personally feeling the effects of the recent economic slowdown,” said Louise Mitchell, national manager of consumer markets for RBC Royal Bank. “Canadians recognize that buying a home is still a great investment and they are taking advantage of the current low interest rates to make wise financial choices for themselves and their families.”

RBC reports that 56% of Canadians who own a home carry a mortgage. Of those intending to buy, 83% would prefer a mortgage through an in-person meeting at a bank. Only 3% of respondents wanted to apply for a mortgage online (this is down from 5% in 2001).

While mortgage rates are the biggest factor people consider when choosing a mortgage lender, 64% said that advice and information from a financial institution was also a very important consideration when making the choice and 39% said that a personal relationship with the financial institution was important. Ultimately, 63% say that if they were buying a home in the next two years they would expect to sign their mortgage with their current bank.

“We are pleased to hear that so many Canadians are finding value in the kind of advice and information that their bank can provide,” said Mitchell. “Buying a home can be one of the most important personal and financial decisions that an individual or family can make.”

Women tend to rate the amount of advice and information they can get from a potential lender as more important (71% of women versus 57% of men say that advice and information are important). Women also rate a personal relationship with their financial institution more important when choosing a mortgage lender (43% of women listed a personal relationship as an important factor versus 35% of men).

The study was conducted by Ipsos-Reid by telephone between December 2001 and January 2002. The poll is based on a randomly selected sample of 1500 adults. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within +/- 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.