Mortgage debt rising but borrowers keep up

September 5, 2017


The mortgage debt of Canadians is rising, but homeowners are keeping up their payments, says a study by credit monitoring firm TransUnion, which surveyed every active credit file across the country.
The report, released in August, found that as of June 30, the average Canadian homeowner had a $198,781 mortgage, up nearly 5 per cent from a year earlier.
However, TransUnion also found that homeowners are keeping pace with their debts, as mortgage delinquency rates dropped to 0.56 per cent for the third quarter in a row. 
Credit agencies consider a debt to be delinquent if the borrower is more than two months behind on payments. A delinquency rate of 0.56 per cent means barely one of every 200 mortgage holders was more than 60 days behind on their mortgage payment as of the end of June.
The delinquency is higher, however, than reported at the end of 2016 by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. which put the national delinquency rate at 0.35 per cent, with only Edmonton spiking to the 0.55 range.