The financial burden on Canadian households intensified in the first quarter of 2024, with missed payments on mortgages and other forms of credit rising to pre-pandemic levels, according to Equifax Canada.
More than 34,000 Canadians missed a mortgage payment in Q1, nearly 23 per cent more than in Q1 2023, according to Equifax’s latest. More than 1.26 million people missed making some kind of credit payment in the quarter, up 12.2 per cent from last year.“It's only really scratching the surface in terms of what it's going to do to payments,” she said. “It needs to go down at least a full per cent, maybe, before there's probably some meaningful impact to individuals.
In Ontario, the total mortgage balance at 90 days or more without payment — known as “severe delinquency” — topped $1 billion for the first time. . The report says new mortgages “hit an all-time low” in Q1 “as consumers held off making big purchase and financing decisions amid rate-cut speculations.” Nationally, there was a year-over-year drop in mortgage refinancing levels and in first-time home buyer volumes .
“As high home prices and reduced affordability continue in some geographies, more consumers are making the decision to relocate to more financially accessible regions,” Oakes said. “In the last 12 months, the number of individuals who moved from Ontario and British Columbia to other provinces exceeded those who moved to Ontario. Almost 71 per cent of all interprovincial movement to Alberta came from those two provinces alone.