Real Estate Saved by Wedding Money?

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]Things are clicking. Uh Canadians are so worried about getting priced out of the housing market forever that they're putting off their wedding plans to do so. This according to the media's account of a new report coming from Royal La Page. And yeah, as we'll see, this seemingly odd survey went everywhere. All noting that Canadians on mass are putting off their wedding plans to be able to get into the housing market.

[00:00:20]>> New study finds Canadians would rather downsize their wedding than their homeowner aspirations. Hi, Emma. Except that's not at all what this poll says.

[00:00:30]So, what I want to do today is go over the poll itself, taking a look at what it actually says, which is basically nothing. Taking a look at some of the polls problems and how it's being reported.

[00:00:38]>> But today's buyers seem to be more focused on long-term stability. Advice from these realtors is to educate yourself.

[00:00:44]>> It's realtor, not realtor. You guys are going to be in trouble with Bloomberg.

[00:00:49]>> YOU GET MY WIFE'S NAME RIGHT.

[00:00:51]>> LET'S GET INTO THIS POLL.

[00:00:59]onto this poll. As mentioned, according to the media's report of the Royal of Page Survey, a majority of Canadians would skip an expensive wedding to save for a home. As mentioned in previous videos, I actually took a look into how much these polls cost as if I remember correctly, I wanted to conduct one making fun of realtors or something like that, making fun of media. I can't remember correctly, but the price was going to be around $20,000.

[00:01:22]>> Nope. And yeah, that seems like an awful lot of money then and it seems like an awful lot of money now for Royal La Page to pose such an odd question, but then you take a look at its commentary on its own survey, noting that a lot of couples are now prioritizing home ownership due to concerns that they'll be priced out of the market. So, there's the spin and the fear of missing out. You better buy now as so many couples are going to be taking their wedding money and putting it towards a down payment of a home and then it'll be priced out forever.

[00:01:50]>> We can't let that happen. But sure, I definitely don't doubt it. I've met a lot of couples that have delayed their wedding plans in order to buy their first home. But that's not what this survey says. This survey asks, "Of those who are planning a wedding or know someone who was planning a wedding, would you forego or significantly scale back a wedding to put money towards a down payment on a home?" Which is obviously problematic on its face. First and foremost, do you know someone? Think of all the friends you have. How many of them understand the inner workings of your finances? Second, the obvious question is what percentage of that poll, those 1,700 people that were surveyed are the ones getting married or know someone that's getting married. The poll does not say full stop at that point. None of this is worth anything of substance.

[00:02:36]>> Exactly what we're looking for.

[00:02:38]>> The survey, as listed in the fine print, was of 1,717 Canadians, but it doesn't give a percentage of those Canadians that are looking for a home or know someone that's looking for a home. So, we really have no idea of what percentage of the population are going to be using their wedding money to buy that first home.

[00:02:55]Unless that is, you need the ad dollars.

[00:02:57]And then you note that Canadians are scaling back. Not those that are planning a wedding that are scaling back, but Canadians rit large.

[00:03:05]>> Everybody's doing it.

[00:03:06]>> But not only does the poll not give us that breakdown, it also doesn't give us the breakdown by province with the sample noting that it was heavily weighted towards Atlantic, Canada, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. The poll does state that it weighted age and gender within cities, but it doesn't say that it's across provinces. So, we don't know how many or what percentage of couples were surveyed. We don't know where they were surveyed, but we do know that the Toronto Star says that couples in Ontario would prefer cash gifts.

[00:03:35]Further, the poll, if you take the time to read it, tells you on its face that it itself is problematic, stating explicitly that these smaller subsamples are going to be more prone to errors.

[00:03:46]And it wasn't just a Financial Post and the Toronto Star CP24 took the time to tell us that most Canadians with Marriage on Track rank home ownership higher than the wedding. And speaking of media reporting, just recall we have a poll on this channel that actually reached 1100 respondents asking if the media was more incompetent or just biased in favor of the real estate industry with 61% finding real estate bias.

[00:04:09]>> And how? Now, I don't doubt at all that some couples are foregoing their wedding plans in order to put a down payment on their house, but that's not what this poll says. What this poll says is that some, who knows how many, it doesn't give a breakdown, but that some or their friends in Atlantic, Canada, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba will definitely prioritize their down payment over a wedding, and another 30% might.

[00:04:33]So the net uh in Atlantic Canada is that they would you know 95% of people would scale back on their wedding or or forego a wedding to buy a home right and so uh it's quite high in Atlantic Canada. Can you read? So, this poll doesn't really tell us anything about the intention of its subjects, which is a problem, as it's eerily similar to another Royal La Page poll from 2 years ago that said that half of sideline home buyers would be entering the market when the Bank of Canada cut rates, which was obviously wildly inaccurate for much the same reasons.

[00:05:06]>> It's marketing.

[00:05:09]>> Speaking of the margin of error, take a look at the footnote on the actual poll and then take a look at the footnote on Royal Laage's press release. The actual poll appears to have a bit more information now, doesn't it? Let's dig into that a little bit deeper. The actual poll takes the time to note that no margin of error can be associated with a non-probability sample, i.e. a web panel in this case, meaning they themselves are admitting they can't report on the extent to which this poll is representative of the Canadian population at large since it's an online survey. My guess is coming from Ledger, a paid online survey. Meaning what the headline should say is that 80% of who knows how many people that are paid to take online surveys or their friends would give up their wedding for a down payment. Now, no slight against those people who take online surveys, but from what I understand, they're not overly lucrative. In fact, a study from ECOS, admittedly from 2010, says that these kinds of panels skew lower income and severely underrepresent highincome households. As such, I'm not 100% sure that these people who trade their finite time to take online surveys are the ones that are going to be flooding the Toronto market with their nonused wedding money.

[00:06:24]>> Math.

[00:06:26]>> Yeah, now you're getting it. And just to be thorough, I attempted to run a poll on this channel, which all things being equal, viewers of this channel should have at least a passing, if not focused, interest in the real estate market. And that poll found that only about 5% of those who have bought or are genuinely thinking about buying have used paid online surveys. Now, obviously, that poll doesn't have the response rate.

[00:06:48]Argo doesn't have the validity of a $20,000 poll conducted by Rol Page, but I think you get the idea. So, if this widely reported poll tells us anything, which it really doesn't because it doesn't give us the breakdowns, but if it tells us anything, it's giving us the intentions of people who take online surveys, those people that are more likely to be lower income and their friends. It gives us their intentions on what they're doing with their wedding money.

[00:07:13]>> Oh, I I like money.

[00:07:15]>> Congratulations, Roya Page. You spent $20,000 and gave us absolutely nothing.

[00:07:19]Remember that the next time your realtor delves into finances. Well, actually, Royal La Page didn't spend $20,000 for nothing. It got a whole slew of articles like this, which could against Royal La Page's intention, I'm sure, create the perception that there's a whole slew of wouldbe wedding holders that are now going to be using that money as down payments, and we're going to see a whole flood of first-time home buyers enter the market.

[00:07:43]>> That many couples across Canada are willing to ditch a wedding just to afford a down payment, with 46% of people in Ontario saying they would definitely ditch the wedding. But that's just not what the poll says. With that said, we will obviously continue to do the media's job for it, reading the actual polls upon which we report on this channel. Make sure you click like and subscribe if you want to get those updates. But for now, thanks so much for watching.