The controversy over subprime lending may be making headlines, but Canadian homeowners remain fundamentally conservative when it comes to their mortgages.

About one-third of respondents in an annual survey released yesterday by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said they had made a lump-sum payment at some point to try and pay their mortgage earlier.

More than half said they were making weekly or biweekly payments to shorten the amortization period. And 18 per cent of first-time buyers said they had made some extra payments in the past year.

"This is a consistent, and maybe comforting theme, that Canadians are fundamentally cautious about debt," said Pierre Serre, CMHC's vice-president of insurance products and development.

More than half the respondents also said they would use extra money to pay down the principal on their mortgage whenever possible.

A credit crunch in the United States arising from lax lending practices by financial institutions on so-called subprime loans to home buyers with poor credit has caused the economy to tank.

Meanwhile, longer-term amortizations, including 40-year mortgages introduced in the past year, lead some critics to warn it will create a generation of homeowners who never pay off their mortgages.

The CMHC survey did not ask questions about longer amortizations or the subprime market.

But the survey showed Canadians remain cautious about debt – and aren't as aggressive as their U.S. neighbours – with 40 per cent of respondents saying they intended to reduce their amortization period when their mortgages came up for renewal.

Meanwhile, the Canadian housing market is expected to cool this year as affordability becomes an issue and the economy slows.

"Given the events that are spilling out of the financial sector, we should expect that employment rates for Canada and Toronto will soon turn down," housing economist Will Dunning said in a report.