Vancouver’s residential mortgage pool continues to grow. The new release from Statistics Canada show that the Vancouver Census Metropolitian Area (CMA) saw the rate of homeowners with a mortgage rise in 2016. This is despite the decline in the rate of homeownership.
Residential mortgages rise over 7%
The total number of residential mortgages in the Vancouver CMA experienced solid growth. Census 2016 numbers work out to ~366,672 homeowners with a mortgage, an increase of 7.13% from the previous Census in 2011. If that number looks higher than normal, it’s because the numbers are self-reported. This means it will have included private mortgages, a market that doesn’t report their statistics.
Source: Statistics Canada.
Rate of homeowner with a mortgage rises
The rate of homeowners with a mortgage is increasing across the Vancouver CMA as well. Census 2016 shows a rate of 60.3%. That’s a 2.2% increase from the previous Census conducted in 2011. That’s not a lot higher, but it is interesting when compared to a decline in the rate of homeownership. The rate of homeownership slid lower to 63.7%, a 2.74% decline from the previous Census. Basically, more homeowners are using mortgages than they previously were.
Source: Statistics Canada.
The median cost of maintaining an owned home rises 10.43%
The monthly shelter costs for residential homeowners showed surprisingly low growth. Census 2016 reported a median monthly payment of $1,376, 10.43% higher than in Census 2011. Inflation adjusting those numbers, the increase falls to just 3.45%. This is substantially lower than the national inflation adjusted increase of 8%. The size of that payment indicates the median homeowner must have owned their home for quite some time (or made massive downpayments).
Source: Statistics Canada.
The rate of homeowners with mortgages showed gains, despite the rate of homeownership slipping. Although the median household is paying a lot less than we would have expected to carry their home. So if you’re buying today and wondering how everyone else can afford their digs, it’s because they’ve likely owned for a looong time.
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