Windsor in Top 5 of mortgage-free homeowners in Canada: report

Windsor has the fifth highest rate of mortgage-free homeowners in Canada, according to a study by Casivoo.

The report says 42.8 per cent of homeowners are mortgage-free. From a total of 118,940 private households, 50,880 have paid off their mortgages and 68,065 have not - 57.2 per cent.

Thunder Bay, Ont. was found to have the highest rate of mortgage-free homeowners at 47 per cent. Peterborough, Ont. lands second place and St. Catharines - Niagara comes in third.

Barrie, Ont. comes in last, with 31.8 per cent of homeowners having paid off their mortgage.

Online gambling experts at Casivoo analyzed 2021 data from Statistics Canada on the number of private households in the country and their status. This included owners with a mortgage, owners without a mortgage, renters and subsidized housing. The areas with the highest percentage of mortgage-free homeowners were used to determine the ranking.