These are stories Report on Business followed this week.

Follow Michael Babad and The Globe's Business Briefing on Twitter.

Here's a lesser known, and worrying, tidbit from the Bank of Canada's financial system review: Some home buyers aren't just getting mortgages, but possibly loans for their down payments, as well.

Story continues below advertisement

To be clear, the central bank doesn't see a housing meltdown in the works. Nor does it expect consumer debts to come crashing down around everyone's head. Indeed, Governor Stephen Poloz and his colleague think the financial system is on firmer footing today than it was last summer.

But it did put some interesting numbers to the housing market this week.

First, as The Globe and Mail's Barrie McKenna and Rachelle Younglai report, the Bank of Canada, for the first time, estimated that house prices are inflated by between 10 per cent and 30 per cent. And have been inflated by at least 10 per cent since 2007.

Troubling, too, were statistics on the swollen debts of some households.

According to the central bank's findings, 12 per cent of households now have a total debt-to-income ratio of more than 250 per cent, a level that threatens trouble when interest rates inevitably begin to climb.

Those households account for 40 per cent of all consumer debt in Canada.

The Bank of Canada also flagged concerns over the fact that "a sizable proportion of new, uninsured mortgages are being issued to riskier borrowers."

Story continues below advertisement

And then there was this:

"Low interest rates may be creating stronger incentives for some home buyers to supplement their down payments through additional borrowing, thereby allowing for lower monthly payments, because they can avoid mortgage insurance premiums and obtain longer amortizations."

On this point, the central banking suggested that "financial system vulnerabilities related to household leverage and indebtedness are increased."

It's hard to pin it down, the Bank of Canada said, but "anecdotal evidence suggests that this practice is becoming more common in the context of a reduction in the maximum amortization period for insured mortgages from 40 years to 25 years, and as premiums for mortgage insurance rise."

Lenders, in this case, probably wouldn't be federally regulated because borrowing for a down payment is a no-no at that level.

It's likely that this is modest in nature.

Story continues below advertisement

"It is reasonable to assume that given the new environment we might see some increase in borrowing towards a larger down payment," said Benjamin Tal of the CIBC World Markets economics department.

"While there is no doubt that alternative lenders are playing a more significant role in financing housing activity (directly via the mortgage market and indirectly via credit toward down payments), the share of those players in total activity is still very small – but it is rising," he added.

"So I think that the bank is right regarding this phenomenon, but I think the actual magnitude is still relatively small."

Royal Bank of Canada economist Laura Cooper said the report was aimed at highlighting risks to the economy, and that the central bank was "covering all bases" by looking at where the threats may lie, particularly given warnings about the high consumer debt levels of Canadians.

"The pace of growth in uninsured mortgages has exceeded that of insured mortgages more recently, however we have not seen direct evidence of a change in consumer behaviour in the Bank of Canada credit data," Ms. Cooper said, noting that "the bank's observation is based on anecdotal evidence and may be based on non-publicly available data."

The week's top business videos

Story continues below advertisement

The week in Business Briefing

The week in Streetwise (for subscribers)

The week in ROB Insight (for subscribers)

The week's top news

The week's must-reads