[Only for testing] Thousands of Canadians carrying hefty mortgages are scrambling to balance their home budgets after the Bank of Canada raised its benchmark interest rate by a full percentage point to 2.5 per cent last week.
“If I don’t receive a pay increase or maybe some supplementary income, it will be really tough,” someone X said recently as he headed back into the office from a break in downtown London, Ont.
X has a variable-rate mortgage on the home he bought in London after moving from Brampton with his family six months ago.
“In January this year, I was paying somewhere around $1,920 and now I’m paying $2,500,” said X of his monthly mortgage payments.
X works in banking and hopes his wife will soon land a job.
“So keeping my fingers crossed if she gets a good job or maybe a decent job, we’ll be able to survive. Otherwise it will be really difficult.”
The couple’s grocery bill has also nearly doubled in six months, said X, from $500 a month to $1,000.
X’s colleague, Amandeep Singh, is in a similar predicament. He’s locked into a fixed-rate mortgage, but his term is up in six months.
“I’m scratching my head what to do because the worst is yet to come,” said X.
X moved from Manitoba to London two months ago because his family didn’t like the winters there, but home prices are much more expensive in Ontario.
