Claudia Richard and James McTurk with their 4-year old son Teddy and 10-month old daughter, Rose, at their two-bedroom townhome in Vancouver. The couple held off on their decision to buy a house before the birth of their first child, opting to rent instead.Jennifer Gauthier/The Globe and Mail
When Alison Mazurek was expecting her first child in 2013, she and her husband were living in a one-bedroom Vancouver apartment.
They asked themselves a common question among expectant parents: Do we really need to buy a house before the baby arrives?
As long-time city dwellers who frequented nearby parks, beaches, and coffee shops, they decided to stay put, choosing proximity to those amenities over a home with more space farther out from the core.
But that wasn’t the only factor behind their decision. Vancouver had become the most expensive housing market in Canada, mimicking the unaffordability in major cities around the world.
“People in Europe live in tiny apartments. People in New York make it work. Like, why can’t we make it work in Vancouver?” said Ms. Mazurek, a small-space design consultant behind the blog, 600sqftandababy.
“I think a lot of families wouldn’t want to be in a one-bedroom, but it’s doable and livable,” she said. “We only have one bathroom to clean at least.”
Now raising two kids in a one bedroom and den, Ms. Mazurek has inspired others through her blog to reimagine having families in smaller properties as expectant and new parents grapple with the rising cost of living.
Although many Canadians consider starting a family a precursor to buying a house, experts say focusing on affordability and financial stability is the best way forward during that stage of life.
Laura Bishop, a Winnipeg-based financial planner with IG Wealth Management, says she’s seeing more couples deciding to wait to start a family until they get their finances in order – and even then, many who are expecting children are not buying homes.
“Renting is not a delay, it’s a strategy,” says Ms. Bishop. “You got to budget for baby first before committing to a mortgage.”
While the average age of a first-time homebuyer today is just under 35, the over-35 demographic is rising at a faster rate, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada. Most under that age who are buying have parents co-signing the mortgage, Ms. Bishop says.
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Since buying a home is one of the most significant financial decisions people make, Ms. Bishop advises her clients who are working toward that goal to build an emergency fund to cover three to six months’ of expenses. She says she’s also seeing her clients making do with smaller living quarters for longer and reframing expectations to stay on budget and on track with their savings goals.
Claudia Richard did just that. At first, she was set on buying a two-bedroom home in Vancouver’s sought-after Kitsilano neighbourhood when she was pregnant with her first child in 2021.
“I desperately just wanted to have a home that I could nest in,” she said.
But Ms. Richard was caught in the buying frenzy during the pandemic, and after losing out on two bidding wars, buying a home at peak prices became out of reach. In addition to the upfront fees when purchasing a house – including a down payment, closing costs and moving expenses – she and her husband had to consider the costs of baby gear and monthly daycare.
“When we had done our budgeting, we were aware of [these costs] but I didn’t quite realize how those numbers are actually real,” said Ms. Richard.
The couple resorted to renting in the neighbourhood during their baby’s first year until they bought their current two-bedroom townhome just a few blocks away. Now, after having a second child, they’re planning to convert the basement into an extra bedroom.
“I think for a lot of us that grew up in a traditional house and yard, [we think] ‘I’m letting my kids down,’” said Ms. Richard. “But there’s advantages to living close to parks and shops and biking distance from everywhere. I can actually give my kids everything they need.”
On the other hand, Vancouver realtor Jason Lim says he’s seeing an “exodus” of young families sacrificing location and convenience for a bigger place outside the city. But what’s often overlooked in moving further afield is the commute to work and proximity to schools, which some of his clients later regret.
“I had a client move from the east to the west side of town and [they’re] now having to drive their son 45 minutes in traffic to school,” he said. “They didn’t think about that part.”
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Ms. Mazurek admits that opting for a smaller dwelling does come with trade-offs, the main one being privacy. “Headphones go a long way in a really small space,” she said.
Her common space-saving tips include removing closet doors to open a foot of space, hanging curtains, or using large-scale art on walls to shift focus away from the kids’ toys sprawled across the living room floor.
“I think there’s a shift happening where maybe before, people were resentful that they couldn’t afford a single-family home in Vancouver or Toronto,” said Ms. Mazurek. “It’s like we sort of accepted that maybe that’s not going to happen for us [so] I’m seeing a lot more pride in families doing more with less.”
“I can’t fix the housing crisis, but I can still make a beautiful home for my family,” she said.
