Mortgage and Consumer Credit Trends: Q3 2020 Data

December 23, 2020

Our latest release of Mortgage and Consumer Credit Trends data tables cover the third quarter of 2020. Here are some key highlights from the data:

Mortgage delinquency rates are steady

Delinquency rates are steady across Canada at 0.3%. Montreal continues to trend under the national average. Toronto and Vancouver maintain a flat rate, much lower than national average, at 0.12% and 0.16%, respectively.
Delinquency rates are stable across age cohorts with the highest delinquency rates in the 65 and over age group (0.37%), while the 25 – 34 age group — usually first time homebuyers being the lowest (0.25%).
HELOCs and Lines of Credit delinquency rates continue to be relatively flat and low at 0.17% and 0.62% respectively. The rates for credit cards decreased by 27 basis points to 1.35% and auto loans decreased 20 basis points to 1.89%.

The average credit scores of non mortgage holders (752), mortgage holders (764) and new mortgage originators (753) remained relatively unchanged and high.
The share of mortgages held by consumers with high credit scores (700+) continues to trend higher. It represents 87.48% of outstanding loans, as well as 85.76% of new mortgage loans.
Compared to the previous year, 30.81% of mortgage holders increased their credit score, while 28.49% of their non-mortgage holding counterparts saw their score move higher.

Compared to Q3 2019, non mortgage holders experienced a negative growth in all credit types, most notably in the LOC (-8.11%) and credit card (-11.42%) categories.
Similarly, mortgage holders also experienced a decline across all credit types with the largest decreased seen in the same categories of LOC (-9.31%) and credit card (-11.8%).

The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant social and economic impacts in 2020 throughout all of Canada. We have observed unprecedented declines in employment, pressures on households and increased financial stresses.
CMHC continues to monitor the economic impacts associated with the severity and duration of COVID-19, as this pandemic poses a major risk to housing and financial markets.