Another lottery winner says the prize money will allow him to enter British Columbia's challenging real estate market.
Christian Buron won $675,000 on a scratch-off ticket he'd bought on a whim while getting gas in Surrey.
He said he'd been inspired by a poster with the message, "Anyone can win, and you could be next."
Buron told the B.C. Lottery Commission his first thought when he found out he'd won was that he'd be able to buy a house.
"My dream was always to buy a house for me and my family," he said in a news release issued by BCLC last week.
He also planned to take his family to a nice dinner, and to do "something fun" with his kids.
Buron said his wife was the only one who knew about the win for some time, but that she didn't believe him at first. She went as far as to make him call BCLC to confirm it.
After that, Buron said, he was so excited that he doesn't think he "slept for three days."
Buron is not the first lottery winner to say that the prize will allow them to buy a house.
Two people last year who each won $500,000 said they'd finally be able to enter the real estate market.
One said he woke up his mother to let her know he'd be moving out, as he was now able to buy a small condo in Metro Vancouver.
Another, more than 900 kilometres away, said he'd been a renter for years, and that the prize would be the thing that changed that.
Others in B.C. have been less lucky, and have had to lean on family members if they can, or to give up the dream of homeownership entirely.
A report from CIBC last year highlighted a widening gap in wealth in Canada, finding that nearly a third of first-time buyers had to borrow money from their parents for a down payment.
The amount of money varied by location, and averaged $180,000 in Vancouver.
There are a variety of factors at play, including the rate of inflation compared with salary increases, but also with the cost of rent in the region, it's a challenge for many to save enough on their own.
A realtor told CTV News in October that many of her clients pay $2,500 a month or more, then need to try to save between $100,000 and $200,000 to buy.
It's not something many of her clients are able to do just by working and saving, Vancouver realtor Kate MacPhail said at the time.
Prices are also higher than ever in the area as the market reacts to a historically low supply of housing.
Still, home sales are high, and the region saw a 50 per cent jump between January and February this year, according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.
Last month's sales were nearly 27 per cent above the 10-year average for sales in February. According to the board, the home price index composite benchmark price for all residential properties grew to $1.3 million last month.
