According to TransUnion, a credit monitoring company, consumer debt is rising in Vancouver as people are piling on debt while the rest of Canada is reducing their debt load.
The latest statistics reveal the average credit balance in Vancouver sits at $41,077 . That is a seven per cent increase from $38,357 in 2012.
Conversely, Montrealers reduced their debt by 5.5 per cent from $19,651 to an average of $18,563. That is the lowest among major Canadian cities.
The report concludes that local incomes are up, the real estate market is doing well and unemployment rates are decreasing.
“There is the ability to carry a higher load of debt, but it did seem to be a little bit out of whack with Vancouver and BC jumping up that much over the last quarter and year versus the rest of the country,” said Thomas Higgins, TransUnion’s vice-president of analytics and decision services.
Higgins notes that while British Columbian’s generally carried a higher debt load, they also have one of the lowest loan delinquency rates in the country.
Consumer debt via shutterstock
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