Canadian
household debt relative to assets (19 %) and net worth (24 %) is below prior peaks of 20 % and 25 % respectively.
«We believe high
household debt relative to disposable income has made the market more susceptible to market stresses like unemployment or interest rate increases,» the agency says in the assessment issued Monday.
The budget office also noted that indebtedness has continued to edge higher in Canada, which has seen the largest increase in
household debt relative to income of any G7 country since 2000.
Ipsos Reid conducted the poll about a week after the Parliamentary Budget Office issued a report on Jan. 19 that said Canada has seen the largest increase in
household debt relative to income of any G7 country since 2000.
That is just a little over 4 years, and we can expect a continuation of deleveraging for many years to come - we have a long way to go in order to get back to the levels of
household debt relative to GDP or Personal Disposable Income (PDI).
Flaherty has warned consumers to avoid mortgages that could become unaffordable when borrowing costs rise, after Canadians took on record
household debts relative to disposable -LSB-...]
Not exact matches
So just how are mortgage delinquency rates so incredibly low at a time when
household debt levels
relative to incomes have never been higher?
«When house prices declined, ushering in the global financial crisis, many
households saw their wealth shrink
relative to their
debt,» its authors observed, «and with less income and more unemployment, found it harder to meet mortgage payments.»
Economists at TD issued a report on Tuesday revealing that
household debt has increased across all age groups during the last decade, both in absolute terms and
relative to income.
Over the past 20 years, Canadian
households have more than doubled their ratio of
debt to disposable income (a key measure of leverage
relative to their ability to pay).
When this happens and as
debt levels rise
relative to
debt servicing capacity, at some point the major stakeholders — including businesses, creditors,
household savers, workers and so on — became uncertain enough about how this gap will be allocated that they take steps to protect themselves from this uncertainty.
As a home buyer, your ability to get approved for a mortgage is based on three main factors — your down payment on the home, your current credit score, and your
household income
relative to your
household debt.
Importantly, this decline has allowed
households to borrow roughly twice as much
relative to income as was possible in the late 1980s, while maintaining a given
debt - servicing ratio.
Through higher savings, U.S.
households have materially paid down
debt relative to their disposable incomes over the past decade, and this creates further opportunity for growth in consumer spending.
Such an increase in
debt, they note, «can be paid off with just a few years of the additional wage income ($ 7,000) that the average
household is collecting each year»
relative to 1992.
Another is the
debt - service ratio, which is the cost to carry
debt relative to what a
household makes in a year.
Two of the most important are the
relative amounts of your mortgage and your
household income, and the monthly mortgage payment in relation to your total monthly
debt obligations.
The gross
debt service ratio (GDSR) is the percentage of the total of annual mortgage Ratio (GDSR) payment (principal, interest, taxes, heat and half of condominium common element costs, if applicable, plus secondary financing payment and ground rent if applicable)
relative to annual
household income.
So just how are mortgage delinquency rates so incredibly low at a time when
household debt levels
relative to incomes have never been higher?
In a country where consumers have grown accustomed to low rates, and where
households are burdened with record levels of
debt relative to income, this kind of change is worth noting.
Similarly, a study from 2013 conducted at Northwestern University found that those who had high
debt relative to
household assets, reported higher levels of stress, depression, and poor self - reported general health.
«Among the current generation of young
households, those who own homes carry more mortgage
debt relative to income than previous generations did at the same age,» the review said.
Debt overhang and ongoing deleveraging on the part of firms and
households are the main culprits as well as higher structural unemployment and the stultifying double entendre of more or less permanently high taxes and excessive regulation
relative to our economic competitors.