1 February 2011

“The Canadians are buying more houses: today the homeownership rate is at the record high 70% level. And, of course, the majority of them can’t pay cash, so the rising debt level is not a surprise”, – says Yanick Desnoyers, assistant chief economist at National Bank Financial.

The report also says 40% of homeowners don’t have a mortgage (in the U.S. its only 31%). Given about 30% of Canadians are renters, 58% of households are paying no mortgage interest. In addition to it, the net equity in their houses is very high – it’s even more than 60% (in the U.S. it’s just 39%).