18 February 2011

By the way, Canadian homeowners did much better in this recession than during the prior. Moreover, 51% increase is not so bad if we compare it to the April 1990-April 1992 recession – then the arrears went up by 260%!
According to the latest data arrears have actually decreased in the last year.
It’s necessary to see how tiny today’s numbers are if we look at the whole picture: mortgage arrears for 90+ days have increased by 5,927, but the total amount of mortgages is even more than 4,000,000.
In other words, arrears are absolutely normal in the mortgage market and today’s 0.44% rate isn’t the reason to worry. But if arrears reach the 1.02% level (like in 1983), or even 0.65% (the 1990-1992 recession), then it will be time to act.