Mortgage delinquency rates remain tiny

October 24, 2019

The percentage of Ontario homeowner delinquent in their mortgage payments remains low, despite the downturn in the housing market earlier this year, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., with Ottawa posting among the highest rates in the province.
In the third quarter of this year, the share of delinquent mortgages in Toronto (0.10 per cent ) and Hamilton (0.09 per cent) remained stable and below the provincial average (0.14 per cent ) seen in the first quarter of 2019.
Ottawa (0.25 per cent), has one of the highest delinquency rates amongst Ontario cities, but saw continued year-over-year improvement, albeit small (a decline of 0.01 percentage points).
Strong labour market conditions in Ontario continue to contribute towards lower delinquency rates, CMHC notes.
Since 2016, mortgage delinquency rates have followed a downward trend right across Canada, despite increasing overall debt on average. It  now averages less than 0.30 per cent, and is in the 0.17 per cent range in Vancouver, which has the highest average home prices in the country.