Mortgage-free dreams

By MoneySense Staff on April 5, 2013
Estimated reading time: 1 minute

Canadians appear to be pushing back their mortgage-free expectations to deal with higher cost debt.

Canadians with outstanding balances on their homes now believe they will be mortgage-free by age 57 on average, a poll for CIBC has found. That’s up from age 55 last year. Despite efforts to pay down their mortgage faster, other forms of consumer debt appear to be inhibiting Canadians, the bank said. Half of homeowners said their non-mortgage debt (credit cards, lines of credit, etc.) has increased since they first took on their mortgage. This group was also less likely to be making lump sum payments to their mortgage. “Today’s low rates are a great opportunity for Canadians to drive their mortgage balance down, but the advantage is lost if those extra funds need to go towards repaying higher interest debt instead,” CIBC executive Colette Delaney said in a press release. MoneySense Senior Editor David Hodges has more tips to pay the mortgage off faster.
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