Happy Festivus!

I've got a lot of problems with you people! And now, you're gonna hear about it!

Perhaps you're just getting ready to take off for the holidays, or maybe you've been fortunate enough to already have left work in your wake. In any case, we've got time for one more update and lucky for us this morning the CBA released the October mortgage arrears figures.

As you can see, as of All Hallows Eve the arrears rate in Alberta has matched it's prior all-time high at 0.69% set in February of 1997. Technically it's still a fraction below the prior high water mark (0.00174% to be exact), but it's showing no sign of slowing down. Thus, in all likelihood come the November release we will be setting new record highs.

As it stands now we're up 0.55% from the record low reached in May '07, and this will be the 25th consecutive month of increase. We are up 0.34% year-over-year and 0.02% month-over-month. The rate in Alberta continues to have by far the highest in the nation, with the Atlantic provinces coming in second at 0.50% (up 0.01% MoM, and 0.10% YoY).

Nationally the rate stands at 0.44%, the highest it's been since March of 2002. Up 0.01% from a month earlier, and 0.15% from a year earlier. Ontario was the only province that had a month-over-month decrease (down 0.01%) to 0.42%. Manitoba continues to have the lowest rate in Canada, holding at 0.26% (up 0.06 YoY).

And that about wraps it up (pardon the pun). Now excuse me, I must go dig the pole out of the crawl space and prepare for the Feats of Strength. Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday.