Canadian mortgage debt and home equity lines of credit reached $1.98 trillion in May, comprising the lion\u2019s share of total household borrowing, which rose by 0.8% month-over-month to $2.5 trillion, says Statistics Canada.<\/p>\n
Mortgage debt grew by $16.3 billion in May, up by 1% from April and 8.3% from May 2020.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the first five months of 2021, households added $57.5 billion in mortgage debt, compared with $34.3 billion over the same period in 2020,\u201d said StatCan.<\/p>\n
Dustan Woodhouse, president of Mortgage Architects, noted that mortgage debt growth is an auspicious sign for any country because it is indicative of both a growing population and healthy economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cCanadians are not actually taking on more mortgage debt themselves\u2014median household debt is shrinking\u2014but our country is because the population and housing stock are growing, therefore, the overall mortgage market is growing and it\u2019s a good thing, it\u2019s a good sign,\u201d he said. \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t want to buy a house in a country that has a shrinking population.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts was 282,070 last month, a decrease of 1.5% from 286,296 in May.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver a 10-year period, immigration to Canada has been about 4 million people, and where are they going to live? So it\u2019s healthy mortgage debt growth,\u201d said Woodhouse.<\/p>\n