'Harder than anything': Ontario family's mortgage payments to increase by more than $2,000

An Ontario mother said her mortgage payments are about to practically double – translating to more than $2,000 extra per month if interest rates don’t dip on Wednesday – and it’s 'harder than anything' she’s ever faced.

More than two million Canadians will renew their mortgages over the next year-and-a-half. CTV News asked more than 50 mortgage brokers across Canada how to get the best mortgage deal. This is what we found.

An Ontario mother said her mortgage payments are about to practically double – translating to more than $2,000 extra per month if interest rates don’t dip on Wednesday – and it’s “harder than anything” she’s ever faced.

“You're asking for $2,100 to just be pulled out of the sky and still afford all of my kids' medical needs,” Shawna Wood, a 40-year-old mother of eight children – half of whom have health challenges – told CTV News.

After renting a house in Oro-Medonte for a decade, the family of ten bought the five-bedroom house about two hours north of Toronto for $800,000 in 2021. At the time, they locked in a 3.2 per cent fixed rate for three years.

Like many Canadians, Wood secured historically-low interest rates during the COVID-19 pandemic. But at the end of the month, her mortgage is up for renewal, which means she’ll be watching the Bank of Canada’s interest rate announcement on Wednesday like a hawk.

She said the bank offered her a 7.1 per cent renewal rate, which would translate to a leap from $3,000 to $5,100 per month for mortgage payments.“It makes you sick,” she said. “We worked so hard to be first time home buyers.”

Her husband has increased his workload from 50 to 70 hours a week. In anticipation of the impending interest rate announcement, Wood said she and her husband explored leaving the province, selling the house, and refinancing it.