Spring housing market has a bounce with buyer confidence back!

Young Canadians are expected to give a boost to Canada's housing market this year as more of them tie the knot, get full-time jobs, and see those opportunities as major reasons to make take the plunge and buy a home.

A new study by the Royal Bank suggests that younger Canadians aged 18-to-24 are about to take the market by storm, with about 15 per cent of those surveyed in that age bracket saying they are very likely to buy - almost double the level recorded in 2009.

It's a marked shift in the attitudes of younger Canadians, who have tightened their budgets over the past few years to cope with tough jobs markets and a recessions.

The latest survey shows that overall attitudes are changing as more Canadians return to shopping for homes as the economy recovers, even though it's considered a seller's market.

"Confidence in the housing market is back, essentially," RBC senior economist Robert Hogue said Monday.

Royal Bank said the study found more Canadians are "very likely" to buy a new home in the next two years.

Ten per cent of the 2,047 people of all ages surveyed for the 17th annual RBC home ownership study said they plan to buy a home within two years - up from seven per cent two years ago.

"At this stage last year, there was doom and gloom all around and it definitely affected the housing market," Hogue said from Toronto.

"As we see more and jobs being created and more and more evidence that the recovery is taking hold, and being a reasonable one at that, then it might be another reason to keep the housing market going for a bit."

The RBC study also found that 91 per cent of Canadian homeowners believe a home is a good investment, the highest level in 12 years.

One-quarter of those surveyed, 26 per cent, said they expect their home to be their primary source of income when they retire.

However, the surge in optimism doesn't necessarily mean that Canadians have forgotten about past economic troubles.

The survey found they are still more cautious when it comes to mortgages. Forty-four per cent of those surveyed who plan to buy a home in the next two years said they would take a fixed-rate mortgage.

The fixed-rate mortgages would provide certainty to homeowners who are concerned about the potential for interest rates to rise. However, the degree to which they'll save money - compared with variable-rate mortgages - will depend on several factors including the term, specific rates and how much rates change.

Hogue said exceptionally low mortgage rates and improved affordability have been key reasons for the housing resurgence thus far.

Also on Monday, the latest new homes numbers showed that the annual rate of housing starts were up in February.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said that the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts reached 196,700 units in February, an increase from 185,400 in January 2010.

The report showed the gain was concentrated in the multiple starts segment, particularly in Toronto.

Urban starts increased nine per cent to 179,100 units in February.

Urban multiple starts increased by 19.1 per cent to 89,900 units, while single urban starts increased by 0.5 per cent to 89,200 units.

The annual rate of urban starts increased 28.6 per cent in Ontario in February, 14.3 per cent in Atlantic Canada, 10.8 per cent in the Prairies and by eight per cent in British Columbia.

In Quebec, urban starts fell 14.1 per cent.

Rural starts were estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 17,600 units in February.