Nearly half of Canadians say they believe mortgage fraud is common in Canada, but a significant proportion of people inflate their income or misrepresent their employment to secure a mortgage. I think it is acceptable to do so.
They are, Latest BNN Bloomberg and RATESDOTCA research, made by Léger. The survey, he sent to respondents in mid-February, surveyed 1,521 Canadians aged 18 and over.
Mortgage fraud comes in several forms. This includes faking income, lying about a part-time or contract role, being full-time, misrepresenting the source of your down payment, or any other lie or omission.
The survey found that 70% of Canadians said they would never accept artificially inflating their income with a mortgage, but 17% of respondents said it would.
More Canadians (18%) said they were okay with misrepresenting elements of their employment to secure a mortgage.
47% of respondents said they felt mortgage fraud was common, and 12% said they thought it was very common. Only 5% said they thought it was very rare.
The problem of mortgage fraud in Canada has become an increasing problem in recent years. Equifax says mortgage fraud cases have increased by 52%. Since 2013.
The problem is no doubt exacerbated by the nation’s highly affordable housing market.RBC estimates that by the end of 2022, the average household will contribute 62.7% of their income to cover the cost of owning a home. I said I have to spend. It was the worst level on record. In some cities, such as Vancouver and Toronto, these figures climbed to shocking 95.8% and 85.2% of income, respectively.
The large payouts were due to the significant rise in interest rates over the past year, which more than offset the decline in prices. The Bank of Canada’s overnight rate, which is used to set lending rates, has risen from near zero in early 2022 to 4.5% as of Jan. 25.
Meanwhile, home prices across the country fell. According to the Canadian Real Estate Association, the average Canadian home price in January 2023 was $612,204, down 18.3% from a year ago.
BNN Bloomberg has partnered with RATESDOTCA To better understand how families are navigating COVID-19, we track Canadians on key wallet issues each month. This is the latest in our monthly feature.
methodology
An online survey of 1521 Canadians aged 18 and over was completed between February 17-19, 2023 using Leger’s online panel. It is not possible to associate error bars with non-probability samples (i.e. web panels in this case). However, for comparison, the margin of error for a probability sample of 1521 respondents is ±2.5%, 19 out of 20.
