{"id":696901,"date":"2026-05-27T10:21:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T10:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/696901\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T10:21:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T10:21:31","slug":"some-ontario-homeowners-hit-breaking-point-miss-mortgage-payments-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/696901\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Ontario homeowners hit \u2018breaking point,\u2019 miss mortgage payments: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

The number of homeowners in Ontario and British Columbia who have missed a mortgage payment multiple times is increasing, with the provinces\u2019 high-priced markets pushing some past a \u201cbreaking point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we look kind of at the mortgage trend, it is just a really good indication of the severity of financial stress that\u2019s happening in a region,\u201d said Rebecca Oakes, vice-president of advanced analytics at Equifax Canada.<\/p>\n

Oakes said while the percentage of delinquencies might sound low, being below one per cent, she said it\u2019s an indication of underlying problems.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere we see those missed payments on the mortgage, it\u2019s a very high missed payment rate on everything else by that point,\u201d Oakes said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"Get<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n

Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won’t miss a trending story.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Click<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:23
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBIV: Rising mortgage delinquency rates in B.C.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cAffordability in Canada has been under some strain for quite some time,\u201d she said. \u201cOur big concern right now is that if there is no resolution as to what\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a bit of a roller coaster for Canada over the last few years, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore on Economy
\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n

That statement echoes what the report shows for Canadians, both homeowners and non-homeowners, who the report found have \u201creached a financial inflection point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Insolvency volumes, those who filed consumer proposals or bankruptcies, were up 18.8 per cent year-over-year.<\/p>\n

The numbers were higher among those who didn\u2019t own a home, though the report noted their growth was modest, rising 4.7 per cent compared to the final quarter of 2025.<\/p>\n

Non-mortgage debt reached an average of $43,300 in the first quarter, up from $40,200 two years ago.<\/p>\n

But while insolvency was higher among non-homeowners, those who owned a home saw their average non-mortgage debt hit $82,400 \u2014 an increase of 19 per cent compared to two years ago.<\/p>\n

This group is filing for insolvency faster than those without a mortgage as a result.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of it is going to be linked to, they\u2019re just pushed past that breaking point,\u201d Oakes said. \u201cI think what\u2019s probably likely happening is actually those homeowners are kind of saying, \u2018OK, I\u2019m really struggling to manage the increase on my mortgage and the existing debt I have elsewhere and actually they\u2019re trying to address the existing debt while protecting their home.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u2014with files from The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The number of homeowners in Ontario and British Columbia who have missed a mortgage payment multiple times is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17755,48,46,43,4520,44,168043,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-696901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-affordability","tag-canada","tag-economy","tag-headlines","tag-housing","tag-news","tag-real-estate-market","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}