Hello Anon, in Canada we do have a nice percentage of homeowners that are mortgage free but the numbers did decline more recently. The statstics from Stats Canada have been updated last in 2006 so the following data is a little old. Here is what we know so far. "For owner households with a primary maintainer aged 24 and under, the share with mortgages rose from 80.7% in 2001 to 82.0% in 2006. For owner households with a primary maintainer aged 25 to 34, the share rose from 89.8% to 91.2%. For primary household maintainer age groups 55 and over, mortgage-free home ownership was the most common tenure. Of all households with a primary maintainer aged 55 to 64, about 43.6% were mortgage-free owners, 34.0% were owners with mortgages and 22.3% were renters. The proportion of mortgage-free owners rose to 57.6% for households with a primary maintainer aged 65 to 74, and was slightly higher for those with a primary maintainer aged 75 and over." I hope this info helps, I wish we had more updated info but I guess we will have to wait for the next Canadian Census to find out more. If you or any other reader has any questions please do not hesitate to contact me at any time. Abraham Niyazi - Mortgage Agent - Lic#M08010640 - Centum One FInancial Corp - Lic 10758. Cell: 416-993-4082 Toll Free: 1-866-728-3708 x 115 http://www.centum.ca/abraham_niyazi/ I deal with 25 Banks/lenders and can do mortgages across Canada except Quebec.

Ontario Canada, there must be a reason why they do not want to renew it. Are you in default ? What circumstances do you have that made the lender reject your renewal. Could it be that what you owe is higher than what the value of the property is ? If you can tell me the reason, I may be able to give you a more definite course of action - email me victor_catalan@centum.ca

Porting is for you if you get better rates in doing so. Porting is carrying over the contract to the new property. If you sell the current house with the equity and apply a new mortgage, you will be able to save on payments especially if the rates are lower now. You can then have a substantial down payment on the smaller house, have a lower rate mortgage and hopefull have some cash left.