Record rise in Ontario mortgage delinquencies stem from COVID-era interest rates: Equifax
The company, which monitors consumer credit, says Ontario's mortgage delinquency rate rose to 0.24 per cent in the first three months of 2025, a massive 71.5 per cent increase from that same time period in 2024.
Kathy Catsiliras, vice president of analytical consulting at Equifax, said Wednesday Ontarians are paying the piper for the low rates that were seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
'We had ultra-low interest rates which led to a very hot housing market and specifically, we saw a lot of folks going out again — in many cases purchasing properties and taking on a mortgage,' she explained.
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'Now it's renewal time, and … interest rates are a lot higher.'
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Those rates lead to 'payment shock,' which is the accompanying bump in mortgage rates that homeowners with mortgages then have to deal with. Pair that along with the higher cost of living that Canadians have been dealing with over the past couple of years, and it adds up to see mortgage delinquency rise above pre-pandemic levels, Catsiliras added.
While Ontarians were having trouble paying off housing debt, they were also more likely in the first quarter to default on other types of loans as well, Equifax data shows.
The firm said Tuesday that non-mortgage delinquencies had risen 24 per cent over the first quarter of 2024.
Higher rates of unemployment, coupled with inflation over the past couple of years, are contributing factors in the issues Canadians are facing.
'It is more expensive to live here, which means you're going to have to make a lot more money from an affordability perspective, or it's going to be harder to be paying off your debt levels,' Catsiliras said.
With all of that uncertainty, Equifax said that Canadians are racking up credit card debt at a lower rate, spending on average $107 less per month with Ontario being one of the leaders in that area.
However, at the same time, Canadians were also making 52.9 per cent less payments on their credit cards.
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