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The Mortgage Renewal Wave Just Peaked — Here's What the Data Actually Shows

Published August 30, 2026 For three years, "the mortgage renewal wall" has been the scariest phrase in Canadian personal finance — the idea that a flood of ultra-cheap, pandemic-era mortgages would come due at much higher rates and trigger a wave of forced sales. That wall is now mostly behind us. Two new 2026 surveys, one from Royal LePage and one from Rates.ca, show what actually happened when it hit. The short version: it hurt, budgets tightened hard for a lot of people, but the mass default many feared simply didn't show up. The last big group is renewing right now Royal LePage's 2026 Mortgage Renewal Survey, released August 19 and based on a Leger poll of 1,127 Canadians renewing this year, pins down where things stand: about 12% of all outstanding Canadian mortgages are five-year, fixed-payment loans taken out during the 2020–2022 ultra-low-rate window, and this is their last major renewal wave. The Bank of Canada's overnight rate sat at just 0.25% through m...
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Oil prices slump to six-month low amid weak demand and oversupply

 


Oil prices have fallen to their lowest level since June, as concerns about weak demand and oversupply weigh on the market. The spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus has led to new travel restrictions and lower economic growth expectations, reducing the outlook for oil consumption. At the same time, oil producers have increased their output, creating a glut of supply that exceeds demand.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. crude oil inventories rose by 3.6 million barrels last week, while gasoline stocks jumped by 5.7 million barrels, indicating sluggish demand for fuel. The EIA also lowered its forecast for global oil demand growth in 2023 by 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 4.1 million bpd.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) echoed the bearish sentiment, saying that the Omicron variant is expected to temporarily slow the recovery in oil demand that is underway. The IEA also cut its demand projections for 2022 and 2023 by 100,000 bpd each, mainly due to the expected impact on jet fuel use from new travel curbs.

Oil prices have also been pressured by a stronger U.S. dollar, which makes oil more expensive for buyers using other currencies. The dollar has risen on expectations that the Federal Reserve will tighten its monetary policy sooner than expected to curb inflation, which hit an 11-year high in November.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, settled down $4.42, or 5.9%, at $70.62 a barrel on Wednesday, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the U.S. benchmark, dropped $4.60, or 6.2%, to $69.34 a barrel. Both benchmarks have lost more than 10% since hitting multi-year highs in October.

Some analysts expect oil prices to rebound in the coming months, as the impact of the Omicron variant fades and demand recovers. However, others warn that the market could remain volatile and oversupplied, especially if the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) decide to increase their production further in January.

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