Residential Market Commentary - Delinquencies Rise but it’s Not All Bad News

The latest look at mortgage delinquencies in Canada is not pretty, but it deserves a detailed examination. 

In its quarterly consumer credit trends report for the first three months of this year, Equifax says a growing number of Canadians are struggling to keep up their mortgage payments.  The credit monitoring firm says homeowner insolvencies in Q1 rose 11% compared to the fourth quarter of 2025. 

Delinquency balances also climbed significantly.  For homeowners with outstanding payments of 90 days or more the average balance of their delinquent mortgages climbed by 13.2% to $355,500 compared to a year earlier.  These homeowners also saw their delinquent non-mortgage balances grow by 4.6% to about $54,000, year-over-year in Q1. 

It paints a dreary picture but a closer look shows the problem is not wide spread with the bulk of the most worrying statistics confined to British Columbia and Ontario.  Saskatchewan, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, have all shown resilience and are reporting measurable improvements. 

Nationally, delinquency volumes remain remarkably low with the 90+ day rate at just 0.22%, remaining below pre-pandemic levels. 

Also encouraging, non-mortgage debt fell more than $487 million in Q1; the first decline in several quarters.  It suggests consumers are exercising more spending discipline. 

Overall, Canadian consumer debt climbed to $2.66 trillion, up 3.8% year-over-year in the first quarter.

- First National LP