The one thing we've.... I speak to brokers like Mr. Butler every day—they are our members—and Canadians have shown a tremendous amount of resilience in the face of higher interest rates. Now, will that resilience continue? We see precursors to higher default rates, which are the defaults we've seen in auto and credit card debt. They have also increased, and we're starting to see the defaults rise. That is a growing concern.
Certainly, consumers who are coming up for renewal in the next three years.... I believe 75% of consumers will come up for renewal, and they may have had a rate of 2%. Currently, my interest is 1.69%, so I am one of those consumers. When we experience a rate increase, my husband and I will experience some sticker shock.
Those are two very large concerns.
The other concern is that despite the decrease in housing prices, we actually haven't seen many first-time homebuyers access the market. That, to me, indicates there's a problem with down payments. Saving for a 20% down payment in the greater Toronto or greater Vancouver area is near impossible on a single person's income, which is why we need to have incentives in place that will help first-time homebuyers access the market.