While Canadian consumers owe $2.2 trillion, the average person’s debt (excluding mortgages) fell 0.6% year-on-year to $20,686.
However, part of this reduction in average lending was due to a 7.5% drop in new auto finance as supply chain issues weakened demand for this lending.
“The decline in auto and installment loan debt has been the biggest driver in reducing average debt this quarter,” Oaks said. “Overall average debt is low, but some areas are seeing a slight increase in average debt.”
slow housing market
New mortgage growth slowed in Q4 2021, down 8% year-on-year with pull-backs in some of Canada’s hottest housing markets such as Toronto and Hamilton (16% and 19%), respectively.
Average mortgage loan amount increased 10% year-over-year to $335K, but it was down 1.5% quarter-over-quarter, the first time the average loan amount for new mortgages has shown a quarter-over-quarter decline since The pandemic has started.
