The federal government’s mortgage stress test was expanded in January in a bid to protect homeowners from becoming overextended, particularly in Vancouver, which has the highest average home prices in Canada.
Yet the latest data on mortgage defaults shows that Vancouver homeowners have the lowest delinquency rate in the country at 0.08 per cent, one of the tiniest ever recorded.
The federal government’s mortgage stress test was expanded in January in a bid to protect homeowners from becoming overextended, particularly in Vancouver, which has the highest average home prices in Canada.
Yet the latest data on mortgage defaults shows that Vancouver homeowners have the lowest delinquency rate in the country at 0.08 per cent, one of the tiniest ever recorded.
“We clearly see the potential risks caused by high household indebtedness across Canada and by high real estate prices in some markets,” OFSI superintendent Jeremy Rudin said at the time. “We are not waiting to see those risks crystallize in rising arrears and defaults.”
As of the first quarter of this year, though, the delinquency rate for existing mortgages fell to 0.08 per cent, down from a peak of 0.6 per cent in the third quarter of 2014, despite the average monthly mortgage payment rising to $1,800, up 6.3 per cent from the first quarter of 2017, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC). A mortgage is considered delinquent if three consecutive mortgage payments are in arrears.
CMHC found the low default rate in Vancouver was the same regardless of the mortgage amount.
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