Study shines light on trend
Thunder Bay, Ontario ranks as the Canadian city with the largest percentage of mortgage-free homeowners, with 47% of residents having no outstanding loan on their home, according to a new report.
Casivoo said it had analyzed 2021 Statistics Canada data on the number of private households in the country and their status, including owners without mortgages, those who are living under subsidized housing, renters, and owners with mortgages.
Based on the statistics, out of 37,700 private households in the Thunder Bay area, 17,745 have fully paid their mortgages.
Peterborough, Ontario took second spot, with 45.2% of private households there having paid off their mortgage, while St. Catharine – Niagara landed in number three. There, 43.5% of private homeowners have fully paid off their mortgage, the report said.
In the number four spot is Victoria, British Columbia with 43.2% of private households being mortgage-free; next is Windsor, Ontario with 42.8%.
In Belleville-Quinte West, Ontario, 42.3% of private households had fully paid off a mortgage, while Kingston, Ontario and Nanaimo, British Columbia were in joint seventh position with 42% of homeowners fully mortgage-free.
Kelowna, British Columbia landed in eighth place with 41.3% mortgage-free households. Ninth place went to Greater Sudbury, Ontario ranks ninth, with 41.1% of homeowners being mortgage-free, while in 10th spot is Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, with 40.9% of private households mortgage-free.
Other places in Canada that landed in the Casivoo list of the greatest number of private households not worrying about their mortgages are:
- Vancouver – 40.8%
- Fredericton – 40.6%
- Saint John – 40.4%
- Kamloops – 40%
- Hamilton – 39.8%
- London – 39. 6%
- Lethbridge – 38.4%
- Toronto – 38.3%
- Guelph – 38.1%
- Chilliwack – 37.8%
- Ottawa – 37.5%
- Gatineau – 37.5%
- Drummondville – 37.3%
- Sherbrooke – 37.2%
- Brantford – 37. 1%
- Kitchener – 37%
- Cambridge – 37%
- Waterloo – 37%
- Regina – 36.9%
- Barrie – 31.8%
“It's interesting to see that a number of areas within Ontario dominate the top 10 rankings. The locations in the lead ranking are perhaps more attractive to older homeowners who are more likely to have paid off their mortgage, hence why we are seeing the higher rates. It’ll be interesting to see if new regions enter the top ten in the future,” said a Casivoo spokesperson.
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