A new report from insolvency firm MNP LTD. says more Canadians are facing a deteriorating debt situation, as high costs and elevated interest rates make it harder to pay the bills.
Having signed up for 6.1%, you've presumably budgeted so that you can actually pay it going forward at that rate. The problem for people who signed up at around 2% is that they budgeted to pay at that rate. And since a lot of people have no savings, they can't afford a large rate increase now. So, when mortgage renewals start coming up, a lot of people are gonna end up being insolvent.
You are screwed for sure if you shopped at the top of your approval range in one of the hotter high value markets or immediately ate up the rest of your GDS/TDS with truck/SUV loans, renovations or other expenses. However, There will be Canadians who are in a position to handle a rate increase from 2.3% to 6% or so, when their renewals come up.
The context here is that over half the population is 200 bucks away from not being able to make ends meet. So, clearly lots of people will not be able to handle large increases in mortgage payments. Meanwhile, those who do will be pushed further to the margins.
I can't imagine having to completely re-adjust your budget every 3 years, despite making a 30 year commitment and shelling out most or all of your life savings.
It was that way in the 90's too. It's not a new problem. I didn't have parental support and ended up couch surfing for a few years while putting myself through college, despite working the entire time. It's hard to establish your place in life when you don't have odds stacked in your favor. I couldn't even get a credit card because I was injured without health insurance at 18, which led to medical collections, which meant bad credit and no credit card.
Reflecting on their current debt situation, more households rate their current situation as much worse than it was one (20%, +2 pts) and five years ago (25%, +3 pts) compared to the previous quarter (20%). Looking into the future, more believe their debt situation will worsen over the next year (18%, +3 pts) and five years from now (16%, +2 pts). Fewer also see any potential for improvement over the next five years (35%, -2 pts).
Emphasis mine.
This is just another self-reporting survey. I want to see actual data. When you cross average household debt with average household income, what does that look like?
Yeah, self-reporting sucks in most cases. It could be valuable in this case, for example, if the people self-reporting are actually money-smart and not just guessing.