Posthaste: 3.4 million Canadians will renew their mortgages by 2025 — and they're worried

financialpost.com:

The days of “rock-bottom rates” are over and mortgage borrowers will have to adjust to the new reality.

That’s the message from real estate brokerage Royal LePage, which released a poll Oct. 26 showing elevated homeowner anxiety about the coming wave of mortgage renewals. Over the next 18 months, the firm estimates that 3.4 million Canadians will renegotiate their mortgages — almost all at a higher interest rate. The poll, conducted from Sept. 8 to 14, found nearly three quarters of them are worried about the looming transaction.

People are contemplating a series of financial changes to manage the anticipated extra drain on their finances, including looking for a new lender and lengthening amortization periods. Many also said they are contemplating day-to-day cost-cutting measures to cope with lending rates that are now at 21-year highs.

“While the central bank’s key lending rate is expected to come down in the medium term, the likelihood that we will return to rock-bottom rates of less than one per cent is very low. Upon renewal, fixed-rate mortgage holders will be faced with a new reality — higher monthly payments,” said Karen Yolevski, chief operating officer of Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., in a press release.

Among the tactics people are weighing to ease the burden of their mortgage payments, 24 per cent said they have considered extending their mortgage’s amortization period, 23 per cent said they are thinking about switching lenders to get a better rate, almost 20 per cent said they have mulled extending their mortgage term and 17 per cent said they have contemplated selling their home and downsizing.

Yolevski warned that going to a new lender could backfire as homeowners will have to qualify for the