Where is the money now

The research methodology used in early 2010 is similar to that employed in 2007 and 2009, and aims to compare the perceptions of Canadians regarding the changes in their finances with the understanding of the situation derived through the analysis of the publicly available statistics. [...] The primary aim of the research has been to identify perspectives of Canadians on the changing level of their indebtedness and wealth, and to examine these findings in the context of publicly available facts and figures. [...] Consideration of the 2008 and 2009 years permits us to capture the features of the financial turmoil emanating from the economic downturn from the moment it started to noticeably affect the Canadian economy5 all the way through the end of the recession. [...] However, since the beginning of the century, only subtle movements in the composition of overall household debt were observed: the proportion represented by consumer credit increased from the decade’s lowest of 30.0% at the beginning of 2000 to 31.7% at the end of 2009. [...] The level of households’ equity in residential structures and land changed only slightly in the past two decades, moving from 69.2% of the value of these assets at the beginning of 1990 to its peak of 70.8% at the beginning of 2007.