New numbers from Equifax this week confirmed what housing market watchers have known for a while now: Canadians are addicted to mortgage debt.
Canadians took out 410,000 home loans in the second quarter. That’s the biggest quarterly jump on record, up 60 per cent compared with the same period a year earlier.
Despite fears in the early days of the pandemic that COVID-19 could be a bucket of ice on Canada’s housing market, the opposite happened. Interest rates slashed to record lows, coupled with millions of Canadians cooped up at home suddenly needing more living space, acted more like gasoline on the housing market than water.
What happens when rates rise? You may lose your house. You don’t want this to happen while you’re PM.
