In Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC)’s recently released second quarter financial results, the organization stated that during the last quarter, it generated $338 million in net income from its mortgage loan and securitization guarantee programs, which operate on a commercial basis without support from taxpayers.

During the second quarter, CMHC provided mortgage loan insurance for 134,891 units across Canada, which is up 11.2 per cent from Q2-2015. As of June 30, 2016, the size of its mortgage insurance business was $523 billion in total insurance-in-force, which is down $3 billion compared to the amount at the end of last year. This is still well below CMHC’s legislated insurance-in-force limit of $600 billion.

The average insured loan amount for transactional homeowner mortgages for the six months leading up to June 30 remained level at $237,628, which is a 0.5 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2015.

Homebuyers with CMHC-insured mortgages tend to be better able to manage personal debts as they are supported by an average credit score of 750 for transactional homeowner loans and an average gross debt service (GDS) ratio of 25.4 per cent for the three months ending June 30, 2016.

The strength of CMHC’s portfolio can be found in the overall arrears rate which stood at 0.32 per cent, as of June 30, 2016. This number is down from 0.34 per cent at March 31, 2016. The total number of loans in arrears was 8,386 as of June 30 of this year.

“Spring 2016 was another steady quarter for CMHC,” said Brian Naish, chief financial officer at CMHC, in a press release. “Our net income is stable, insured volumes are up and the overall arrears rate remains low. That said, we continue to monitor housing markets closely due to weaker economic conditions in parts of the country.”

Photo courtesy of KMR Photography.