Despite a trade war and other geopolitical tensions, as well as the ongoing wave of mortgage renewals, the majority of Canadian homeowners are still making their monthly mortgage payments, according to a new survey.
About 83 percent of Canadian homeowners say they have never missed a mortgage payment, according to a survey released Tuesday by brokerage firm True North Mortgage Inc.
However, this does not mean that households are not under financial strain. More than a third of respondents said it was difficult to keep up with mortgage payments in the past year.
“It hasn’t been an easy year for homeowners,” said Dan Eisner, managing director of True North Mortgage. “Last year there was a lot of discussion about trade and tariffs, which caused a lot of indecision among homebuyers, and then interest rates moved quite a bit.”
Yields on five-year Canadian government bonds have also risen recently amid the war against Iran, which Eisner said is already impacting interest rates on five-year fixed-rate mortgages.
“Signs of financial stress are evident,” said Tania Bourassa-Ochoa, deputy chief economist at the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). “Canadian households are still heavily indebted and therefore highly indebted.”
According to the latest data from Equifax Canada Inc., mortgage debt reached $1.95 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2025, up 2.6 percent from a year earlier.
And while Canada’s overall mortgage delinquency rate remains low at 0.22 per cent, it is rising faster for borrowers whose mortgages originated in the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021 and in the post-pandemic period, Bourassa-Ochoa said.
According to CMHC, there are specific local impacts in areas with higher costs, such as: e.g. Toronto. Toronto’s mortgage delinquency rate has more than quadrupled from its post-pandemic low to 0.26 per cent and is expected to continue rising.
Higher household debt, a weak job market and declining property values have contributed to Toronto homeowners increasingly struggling to keep up with their mortgage payments. Bourassa-Ochoa said homeowners in Toronto who are in financial distress may not even be able to resort to selling their home to get out of debt due to falling prices and the increasing number of days on the market.
How do the majority of Canadians cope with their home loans?
True North said it saw a 67 percent increase in refinances last year. Possible reasons include debt consolidation and extending the mortgage repayment period to reduce payments.
Bourassa-Ochoa said CMHC has seen an increase in repayment terms for many homeowners, although this too comes with higher overall interest paid over the life of the loan. “There’s this trade-off between short-term affordability and long-term prosperity.”
She added that homebuyers are moving away from five-year fixed-rate mortgages and instead securing longer-term home loans to spread out their payments.
More than half (57 percent) of homeowners in the True North survey said they have delayed other financial decisions to prioritize mortgage payments. About 36 percent have postponed trips or vacations, 31 percent have postponed home repairs or renovations and 27 percent have postponed retirement planning or investments.
Nearly a quarter of respondents said they had put off paying off other debts. Data consistently shows that borrowers tend to default on other types of debt (such as auto loans and loans) first before defaulting on their mortgage, which CMHC says can have more serious consequences, such as: B. a foreclosure
“Typically, homeowners who are in financial trouble prioritize their mortgage,” Eisner said, adding that he was initially surprised that the share of those who had never missed a payment was not higher than it was around the mid-1990s, up from 83 percent.
Bourassa-Ochoa said she is seeing consumers take on more debt, such as credit cards and loans. “Consumers are trying to move things around … to make ends meet.”
The CMHC is paying attention to any changes in inflation and labor market conditions, particularly in regions affected by tariffs, such as Ontario and its automotive industry, Bourassa-Ochoa said.
The national unemployment rate rose to 6.7 per cent in February as the economy lost 84,000 jobs, according to the latest jobs data from Statistics Canada.
“If you look at Canadian history, the leading cause of mortgage delinquency has always been unemployment,” Bourassa-Ochoa said. “If we see a major economic shock that would lead to massive job losses, the risk is actually significantly higher.”
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