Debtors at the moment are spending roughly $1 out of each $13 of their disposable revenue on servicing their mortgages.
That’s in accordance with Statistics Canada’s fourth-quarter nationwide stability sheet and monetary move accounts. The information reveals Canadians are spending 7.66% of their family disposable revenue on servicing their mortgage debt, up from 7.5% within the earlier quarter and seven.09% a yr earlier. That’s a file excessive in accordance with information going again to 1990.
Taking a look at complete general debt obligations, the common debt-to-service ratio rose to 14.33% in This fall, up from 13.72% a yr earlier.
“Whereas debt progress slowed and revenue elevated, the debt-service ratio continued to edge increased and debt reimbursement slowed,” TD Economics’ Ksenia Bushmeneva noticed in a analysis observe. “Trying forward, debt servicing prices are anticipated to proceed to rise quickly over the course of this yr and peak later (within the second half of 2024).”

The rise in debt servicing prices was stored in examine because of slowing debt progress and an increase in revenue over the quarter, StatCan reported.
Family disposable revenue earlier than curiosity funds rose by 3.8% within the quarter, which was outpaced by a 4.4% rise in debt funds.
“Extra upward stress on debt funds stays, as these with variable-rate mortgages improve their funds because of hitting their set off price, and a few fixed-rate mortgage holders close to the tip of their phrases should then negotiate new lending agreements,” StatCan famous.
The company additionally mentioned that in contrast with the fourth quarter of 2021, funds of curiosity rose an “unprecedented” 45% in This fall 2022, whereas obligated funds of principal fell 7.0%.
Extra findings in StatCan’s information launch
Statistics Canada’s newest quarterly nationwide stability sheet and monetary move accounts supplied a wealth of recent mortgage information. The next are among the highlights:
Family borrowing continued to gradual
- Credit score market debtors added $23.7 billion of debt in This fall, down from $33.7 billion in Q3. StatCan famous that is the slowest tempo of borrowing progress since mid-2020.
- “As households reacted to elevated rates of interest, mortgage demand slowed to $17.2 billion within the fourth quarter of 2022, the slowest tempo because the starting of 2019,” the report famous. “By comparability, households demanded $120.3 billion in mortgage debt over the primary three quarters of 2022.”
- Credit score market borrowing in all of 2022 ($165.8 billion) was down 14.2% in comparison with 2021 ($193.1 billion), however was nonetheless above 2019 ranges ($92.6 billion).
Variable mortgage price reputation falling
- “Variable-rate borrowing represented 24.3% of recent funds superior versus mounted price options within the fourth quarter, in contrast with 53.5% for variable price borrowing within the fourth quarter of 2021,” StatCan mentioned.
- Of all mortgages excellent, variable-rate mortgages represented simply over one-third (33.7%) of complete excellent mortgage debt in This fall, down from 34.7% in Q3.
Residence value declines slowing
- The worth of family residential actual property declined by 1.4% (-$104.1 billion) from Q3 to This fall. That follows two consecutive quarters of sharper declines that, “mixed, shed almost three-quarters of a trillion {dollars} from family actual property wealth,” StatCan famous.
- “By the tip of 2022, the full worth of residential actual property in Canada was 6.8% decrease than the beginning of the yr, however 32.8% increased than the tip of 2019.”