Surging mortgage interest costs are fuelling inflation and putting homeowners in the crosshairs

mortgage-rates-0517-phSoaring mortgage interest costs and higher rents in April helped drive the first rise in headline consumer inflation since June 2022, the latest data from Statistics Canada shows. The consumer price index (CPI) figures released May 16 revealed a 28.5 per cent increase in mortgage interest costs in April compared to a year earlier. That’s the tenth consecutive month that mortgage interest costs have risen and the fourth straight month that year-over-year Increases have topped 20 per cent. The increase in mortgage interest costs is accelerating, according to the StatsCan figures, with April seeing the largest single-month increase among data captured since January 2020. Total shelter costs rose by mid-single digits in each of the past the past two months, up 4.9 per cent in April and 5.4 per cent in March.