endofthewordasweknowit3: Canada does not have a single housing market. It has regional markets and within those markets it has local markets. In Toronto, 50% are renters, and this group as a whole has faced housing cost increases exceeding the rate of inflation for several years. Many in the condo rental market have no protection whatsoever. As for home ownership, it's believed that one in six mortgage holders would risk default were interest rates to rise by only one percentage point. This problem no doubt is far more severe in the Toronto and Vancouver regions, where housing prices have skyrocketed. And an increasing number of homeowners pay upwards of 40% to 50% or more of household income on mortgage payments, another indicator of housing unaffordability.  Many have jumped into the market mainly because they fear prices will continue to escalate and they'll be excluded altogether if they wait, a bubble-generated psychology that's only exacerbated the housing affordability crisis.