Ownership rates are around 65%, but mortgage rates in Canada are only about 30%.

So less than half of homeowners have a mortgage, and another good chunk of those mortgages were small to begin with and are approaching being paid off.

You don’t need to sell the house to benefit from owning it or it having a higher price either. You get to live in it for the cost of taxes and maintenance, that’s a massive amount of freed up monthly cash flow. The house value being higher means you’re paying less comparable to someone who has to rent at current market values (like a young adult moving out)

It would be less beneficial to own the house if the value was lower and rents were dirt cheap.