The Bridle Path–Hogg’s Hollow area’s average household debt has climbed to more than $350,000, according to the latest statistics derived from the WealthScapes database.
Produced by Environics Analytics, the database is designed to capture the financial health of Canadians.
The Bridle Path–Hogg’s Hollow is joined by the Rosedale-Moore Park area (more than $200,000) and Forest Hill (close to $200,000) in carrying some of the highest average household debts across all of Toronto’s neighbourhoods. Together, they’ve seen a 12.4 per cent increase in their debt loads in the last three years, compared to 13.6 per cent across the GTA.
Peter Miron, a senior research analyst at Environics Analytics, explained that, in these neighbourhoods, this is mostly attributed to mortgage debt versus consumer debt. And these higher income households are able to take on more debt, which is demonstrated in a lower debt-to-income ratio.
However, a smaller percentage of residents has mortgages in these neighbourhoods than across the rest of the GTA.
So when the numbers are broken down further, to focus in on those who have a mortgage, they’re actually borrowing quite large sums, Miron said. In The Bridle Path area, the average balance per holder is more than three quarters of a million dollars.
“There’s a lot of pride taken with these neighbourhoods.… To get in, they’re willing to do a lot of things, including take out these large mortgages,” he said. Average consumer debt per household in The Bridle Path area is slightly more than $40,000, which puts it ahead of the average across the rest of the GTA.
Miron said trends indicate a willingness to take on more debt, and he expects this to continue at a stable pace.
