Household debt worries exaggerated?

It’s an opinion brokers may not necessarily agree with, but one influential public policy think-tank believes concerns about household debt are overblown.

The Fraser Institute released a study Wednesday questioning the claim that Canadians are being irresponsible with their debt loads.

“Almost every day we hear analysts warning that household debt levels have reached record highs,” Philip Cross, former chief economic analyst for Stats Canada and co-author of the recently released A Longer-term Perspective on Canada’s Household Debt said in an official release. “While debt levels are growing, those warnings should be tempered by the fact that asset and net worth levels are increasing at a far greater rate.”

According to Statistics Canada, household debt to disposable income reached a record high in Q4 2014 when it increased to 163.3 per cent.

But that doesn’t offer the complete picture, according to Cross.

“You have to account for assets when you’re talking about debt levels, otherwise it’s an incomplete story,” he said.

Meanwhile, household net worth increased 7.5 per cent at the end of last year.

And according to the study, assets owned by Canadian households grew by 31 per cent from 2010 to 2014 to approximately $10 trillion. That, compared to a 21 per cent jump in household debt to $1.8 trillion.

 “Much of the concern about household debt in this country stems from fears that we will repeat the U.S. experience of 2007 where high debt levels contributed to that country’s financial crisis and housing meltdown,” Cross said. “But their problems were mainly the result of policies that encouraged high-risk borrowers to take on excessive debt … Canada doesn’t have that problem. Our banks have tighter lending standards and Canadians are clearly managing their debt levels responsibly with no evident strain to their incomes or balance sheets.”

Still, at least one broker is frustrated by how easy it is to obtain credit in Canada.

“I got a call last week about a credit card billing and after discussing it, they offered me a credit increase to $25,000 and I said, ‘sure it doesn’t hurt, even though I don’t need it,’” Ad Lakhanpal of Mortgage Alliance tol MortgageBrokerNews.ca. “I asked if they needed a credit check or proof of income and they said no.

“My problem is I’m a self-employed person, they don’t know my income and I’m being given a credit card and they have no idea how many other credit cards I have.”