We see the markets as two completely separate markets. We believe that prudent measures taken 10 years ago and those taken recently are important to ensure the sustainability of and confidence in the Canadian housing markets. When you were able to refinance a home at 95% of the value and take 100% financing out on a Beacon score of 640, there were steps taken to bring prudent lending practices to Canada.
Our recommendations here are to tweak the most recent recommendations to ensure that Canadians have the opportunity to afford to get into the housing market. We think some of the changes here are keeping too many Canadians, who would otherwise be very prudent choices for lenders, out of the housing market. The arrears rates are very low. Portfolios are performing well. Credit scores for homeowners have gone up and up, each and every year.
We don't see the correlation between what's happened in the Canadian market and what happened in the U.S. market 10 years ago. The lending atmosphere is completely different. The arrears rates there were 8%, 9%, and 10%. As Mr. Taylor mentioned here, we're under a quarter of a per cent at 90 days arrears right now.
What we're advocating for is the opportunity to get more Canadians into the housing market, prudently, which we also believe will help with affordability. Right now, we have a lot of those Canadians staying either in mom and dad's basement or renting, which further takes stock out of the rental pools, tightens up the vacancy rate in rentals, and has an impact on affordable housing there as well.