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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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Missile Barrage Strikes Northern Israel: Emergency Services Respond to Escalating Tensions

 

Israeli emergency services reported dealing with a string of fires in northern Israel on Friday after dozens of missiles were fired from southern Lebanon into the area around the border town of Kiryat Shemona. The military confirmed that warning sirens had sounded in northern Israel, and emergency services teams were dispatched to search the affected area. Fortunately, there were no casualties reported, but property damage occurred.

Television footage showed damaged buildings, cars, and brush fires caused by strikes or falling debris amid heatwave conditions. The Israeli military has been engaged in regular exchanges of fire with Hezbollah forces across the border in southern Lebanon since the start of the war in Gaza last October. While neither side appears to desire a wider conflict, the escalating strikes raise concerns about the situation spiraling out of control.

The latest salvo followed an Israeli strike that killed a senior commander from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon earlier this week. Tens of thousands of residents have been evacuated from their homes on both sides of the border, putting pressure on diplomatic efforts to resolve the stand-off.

On Friday, the Israeli Air Force intercepted 11 out of 16 drones launched by Hezbollah against Israel in the past 72 hours. The situation remains tense, with the risk of further escalation in a region that has already witnessed direct exchanges between Israel and Iran.


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