The number of homeowners in Ontario and British Columbia who have missed a mortgage payment multiple times is increasing, with the provinces’ high-priced markets pushing some past a “breaking point.”
A new report by Equifax showed the rate of delinquencies in Ontario sat at about 0.36 per cent in the first quarter, a jump of 52 per cent year-over-year. In B.C., the number jumped 36 per cent to 0.25 per cent.
“When we look kind of at the mortgage trend, it is just a really good indication of the severity of financial stress that’s happening in a region,” said Rebecca Oakes, vice-president of advanced analytics at Equifax Canada.
Oakes said while the percentage of delinquencies might sound low, being below one per cent, she said it’s an indication of underlying problems.
Paying off a mortgage is a focus for homeowners, Oakes said, so they will often pay their monthly payment to keep their home but then non-mortgage debt could be missed instead.
“Where we see those missed payments on the mortgage, it’s a very high missed payment rate on everything else by that point,” Oakes said.
A closer look at cities shows some in the Greater Toronto Area saw the biggest increases, with Brampton seeing a 64 per cent increase in balance delinquencies, Toronto up by 58 per cent and Hamilton by 61 per cent.
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High-market prices and rates in places like the GTA are creating strain for many mortgage holders, but Oakes said the market is not the only factor.
“Affordability in Canada has been under some strain for quite some time,” she said. “Our big concern right now is that if there is no resolution as to what’s happening on the global stage in the near future and those gas prices keep going up or certainly remain high like they are right now, that knock onto inflation could start to put individuals who maybe had just recovered from the last big challenge when it came to inflation back into the melting pot again.
“It’s been a bit of a roller coaster for Canada over the last few years, for sure.”
That statement echoes what the report shows for Canadians, both homeowners and non-homeowners, who the report found have “reached a financial inflection point.”
Insolvency volumes, those who filed consumer proposals or bankruptcies, were up 18.8 per cent year-over-year.
The numbers were higher among those who didn’t own a home, though the report noted their growth was modest, rising 4.7 per cent compared to the final quarter of 2025.
Non-mortgage debt reached an average of $43,300 in the first quarter, up from $40,200 two years ago.
But while insolvency was higher among non-homeowners, those who owned a home saw their average non-mortgage debt hit $82,400 — an increase of 19 per cent compared to two years ago.
This group is filing for insolvency faster than those without a mortgage as a result.
“A lot of it is going to be linked to, they’re just pushed past that breaking point,” Oakes said. “I think what’s probably likely happening is actually those homeowners are kind of saying, ‘OK, I’m really struggling to manage the increase on my mortgage and the existing debt I have elsewhere and actually they’re trying to address the existing debt while protecting their home.’”
For homeowners who have missed a payment, their average delinquent non-mortgage balances reached $54,000 in the quarter, a 4.6 per cent increase compared with a year ago. The average balance of their delinquent mortgages also climbed 13.2 per cent to $355,500.
—with files from The Canadian Press
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