Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says the country’s total residential mortgage debt totalled $2.16-trillion as of February this year, up 3.4 per cent year-over-year and representing the slowest growth in 23 years.
“In a context where debt levels have never been so elevated and households are showing increasing warning signs of financial struggle, household debt vulnerability is becoming a primary area of concern,” said CMHC deputy chief economist Tania Bourassa-Ochoa in a press release. That’s despite “noteworthy increases” in the discounts being offered by lenders on five-year, fixed-rate mortgages in the first two months of this year, which marked a reversal of the trend from the last half of 2023.