Decent article below about household debt in Canada.

I have highlighted comments about interest rates staying stable until 2014, as well as comments towards the end of the article regarding the long term potential of rates rising a bit and home owners planning for this eventuality.

At a recent WinnipegREALTORS® forecast breakfast the following statistics were presented:

     1)  Personal Debt per capita (2011)

• USA            $37,000

• Canada        $32,000

• Manitoba      $16,000

     2)  Mortgage Arrears - Deliquency Rate (90+ days,  2011)

• USA            3.46 %

• Canada        0.41 %

• Manitoba      0.21 %

Manitoba is fairing (behaving) much better than the rest of North America.  So, just like the weather, and the real estate market, it would appear that purchasing behavior can have local variances as well....

WinnipegREALTORS® Press Release, February 6, 2013

WINNIPEG -   You have to go back to 1997 to reveal an unusually exceptional January MLS® sales performance. 660 unit sales to be exact and nothing has come close ever since. Even this January at 616 is 7% off the best January in WinnipegREALTORS® 110- year history. 

More recent history shows there were a few Januarys in the early 2000s which flirted with the 600 mark level but still fell short. Whatever way you look at it, January 2013 is a great kickstart to the year with the second best unit sales on record for this month. Not surprisingly, a new monthly dollar volume record for January was set as well, given better than average sales and prices remaining firm. A real impetus behind these strong sales was an 11% increase in MLS® listings (1,164 new properties). These were a welcome addition to the existing inventory and gave buyers more options to choose from.

Condominiums sales stood out with a 26% increase...