Sure. I'll get started. There's a lot in that question.
If we just start with the debt part, it's a very important question how that's evolving, because, as we said, it represents a vulnerability to the Canadian economy that we need to keep in mind. What we've seen in the actual numbers is that the debt-to-disposable income ratio, which is one of our flagship indicators, is not the only one. In fact, that stabilized and started to edge down, so credit growth and total credit growth have dropped by a lot. The growth rates have dropped by a lot, mostly because of mortgage credit, but not entirely. That's a big ship to try to turn around. It will take a while for that to come down, and it requires income growth.
I think more important is really what's going on under the hood there. It's related to the quality of new mortgage lending. There's some very interesting work that's in our monetary policy report, in one of the boxes, and in a couple of weeks we'll have a more complete study that just looks at the quality of the new mortgages that are being underwritten, after not only the most recent B-20 guidelines but the ones before, as you said, that apply to high-ratio mortgages. What we're seeing in the numbers is that the mortgages that are going to highly indebted individuals have dropped by a lot. They've dropped across the board, but mostly for those who have loan-to-income ratio of 450% and above.
Yes, that means it is more difficult for some to get into the market. You used the 20% number. There are others out there. We're seeing estimates that are very close to what we had expected. At the same time, it means that the mortgages that are being written are more likely to stand the test of time and serve those people well, because if you buy a house and later it's too difficult to handle because interest rates increase, that's an issue. Also, if you buy a house and the price of it, your equity, is at risk because house prices, at the time, were rising in the double digits in some jurisdictions and they have slowed a lot, again what that means is that the housing market is operating at a lower but more sustainable pace.
We understand it's a very difficult transition for many people—we know that—but at the same time it does set the economy on a more solid footing going forward. That means that people's jobs and people's incomes are more likely to be less volatile.