Financial assets continue to be a key driver of Canadians’ wealth, as collective household net worth grew to $17.9 trillion in the second quarter of 2025.

Statistics Canada’s latest national balance sheet,

released Thursday, revealed that household net worth was up 1.5 per cent, notching its seventh consecutive quarter of growth.

“Canadian household balance sheets remain resilient in Q2 despite uncertainties around trade policies and a more volatile stock market, with household net worth eking out a small gain,”

Royal Bank of Canada

economist Abbey Xu said in a note.

Financial assets increased 2.7 per cent to reach a record high of $11.2 trillion, thanks to resilient equity markets.

The

S&P 500 Index

gained 10.6 per cent after a decline in the first quarter, while the S&P/TSX Composite Index grew 7.8 per cent after muted growth in the same period.

However, Statistics Canada noted the gains aren’t evenly distributed — the top 20 per cent of wealthiest households hold nearly 70 per cent of financial assets and are “best positioned to benefit from investment income and valuation gains when markets perform well,” the agency said in a release.

After two consecutive quarterly increases, the total value of non-financial assets dipped to $17.3 trillion in the second quarter, as lower residential real estate values put downward pressure on growth. Xu noted that the Canadian Real Estate Association’s MLS Home Price Index slipped 1.2 per cent in the second quarter, erasing gains from the previous one.

>Statistics Canada said

residential real estate

has declined by a “relatively modest” 0.3 per cent since the first quarter of 2024.

“We did see a slowdown in the

housing market

attributed to trade uncertainty, and we do have a pickup in activity recently,” Toronto Dominion Bank economist Maria Solovieva told the Financial Post.

The seasonally adjusted household savings rate dipped to five per cent, as household spending grew by 1.2 per cent, outpacing the tepid 0.3 per cent growth in disposable income. Canada’s unemployment rate was 6.9 per cent in June, the end of the second quarter, and climbed to 7.1 per cent in August — the highest level in nine years, outside of the

COVID-19 pandemic.

“We have headwinds from the disposable income and from labour markets overall. That’s why we still think that there will be a bit of a slowdown going forward,” said Solovieva. “But despite all of this, the balance sheet is still strong, so that’s a good sign.”

The household debt service ratio increased slightly from 14.37 per cent to 14.41 per cent in the second quarter of 2025, but Xu said that number is still below the 2023 peak of 15.1 per cent.

Canadians’ debt-to-disposable income ratio rose 1.1 percentage points to 174.9 per cent as debt levels outpaced income gains, had $1.75 in credit market debt for every dollar of disposable income. Statistics Canada said this was “considerably lower” than the record $1.86 in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Mortgage interest payments rose 0.9 per cent, mortgage rates locked in at pandemic-era lows were renewed at a higher rate. Under a base case where Canada’s unemployment rate peaks at 7.1 per cent and holds steady for the rest of 2025, with some gradual improvement in 2026, Xu said households should be able to handle these increases.

“If the labour market weakens further, that will have a negative impact on wage growth,” Xu told the Financial Post. “If that doesn’t happen, then the risks should be manageable from a labour market perspective.”

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Looking forward, Solovieva expects fairly modest growth toward the end of the year.

“Judging by the numbers to date, in terms of the financial markets, we expect the third quarter will most likely be a positive contribution to household wealth overall, especially if you have a little bit stronger real estate value contribution,” she said.

• Email: jswitzer@postmedia.com