Canadian Mortgage Trends

source:Canadianmortgagetrends.com

CAAMP has released its annual mortgage report and it's chock full of mortgage stats. Here's a rundown on the more notable ones:

5,250,000: The number of Canadian home owners with mortgages.
29%: The percentage of Canadian homeowners who got a new mortgage in the last 12 months.
86%: The percentage of people renewing or refinancing that stayed with their existing lender.
$136,000: The average mortgagor's equity. This equity equals 51.7% of their home value on average.
22%: The percentage of mortgagors who took equity out of their homes in the past 12 months. People are spending more because last year it was 17%.
$41,000: The average equity that borrowers took out of their homes this year. That's up 16% from last year. The most common reason for borrowing this equity? Debt consolidation.
50%: The ratio of new mortgages taken out in the last year with amortizations greater than 25 years.
5.41%: The average Canadian's mortgage rate. Last year it was 5.56%.
0.40%: The average interest rate improvement realized by people who refinanced in the past year.
1.59%: The average discount off of bank-posted rates.
1.96: The average number of quotes people get when shopping for a mortgage.
0.28%: The percentage of Canadians who are 90 days or more past due on their mortgage. That's up just slightly from last year.
10%: The approximate decline in mortgage approvals that CAAMP foresees in 2009.
36%: The percentage of Canadians who are aware that insured 40-year and 100% LTV mortgages have disappeared.
Peoples' favourite mortgage terms:

1-3 years: 29% of borrowers
4-5 year: 61% of borrowers
Over 5 years: 10% of borrowers
CAAMP says there's a noticeable trend in borrowers taking shorter terms when compared to last year.

There's also a big trend towards variable rates. 40% of mortgages were variable in the past year. In CAAMP's 2007 report the number was just 21%. CAAMP says that's because "consumers may be expecting interest rate reductions." We'd also like to think they're becoming more educated about the long-term advantage of variable rates.

Where did people get their new mortgages this year?

Major banks: 47%
Mortgage brokers: 35%
Credit Unions: 11%
Other: 6%
Thanks to CAAMP economist Will Dunning for putting together this wealth of data.