Home prices exponentially increasing over the past year have forced a majority of today’s homebuyers to use the maximum mortgage amounts they’ve been approved for. More than 65% of recent buyers bought the maximum amount of house they could afford, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s (CMHC) latest consumer survey. For about 6 in…
Zero down mortgages in Canada are the kind that one typically associates with the reckless housing market that gripped the U.S. around 2005 – 5% cash down and get 3% back; or, even wilder, put down nothing at all. So when these products — and others like them — started popping up in the normally…
When shopping for a mortgage, many homebuyers enlist the services of a mortgage broker to find them the best terms and rates. After the real estate market crash in 2008, however, the business practices of brokers came under scrutiny, and the question of whether they act in customers’ best interests was raised. Working with an experienced, competent…
The Bank of Canada reduces bond purchases, expects economic slack to be absorbed in the second half of 2022 The Bank of Canada (BoC) kept the overnight rate at 0.25% but continued to taper the quantitative easing (QE) program. The Bank reduced the pace of asset purchases from at least $3 billion per week to…
If we thought credit card debt was always a difficult issue amongst Canadians, there is now an even bigger problem: mortgage debt. Claims suggest homebuyers have pushed new mortgages to unprecedented levels, according to a new report from Equifax Canada. “Much of the growth in consumer debt, which stands at $2.08 trillion, up 4.78% from Q1…
The interest rate is often a yo-yo game, so any kind of loan you take is going to be a gamble! That five-year mortgage you locked in at an interest rate of 3.19% seemed like a pretty good deal two years ago. But the fixed rate is now sitting at 1.99%, even less for a…
The Bank of Canada has announced that it will once again hold its target for the overnight rate at the effective lower bound of 0.25% as expected, with no change to its April projection that the key rate is likely to begin rising in the second half of 2022. The Bank’s June rate announcement saw…
Last week, it was announced again that both insured and uninsured mortgage borrowers will be subject to a stricter stress test when qualifying for their mortgage. The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) confirmed that it will move ahead with its stress test changes first announced last month, which will apply to uninsured mortgages…
Since the pandemic lockdowns dragged interest rates to historic lows in 2020, Canadians have been diving into the real estate market with unprecedented motivation. During a time of extraordinary financial disruption, more than 551,000 properties sold last year — a new annual record, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association. Those sales provided a desperately…
The Bank of Canada took a step towards easing pandemic stimulus — the biggest yet by a major economy! Not only did it say it would reduce purchases of government debt (which was expected), it also brought forward its timeline for a possible rate hike. Previously, the Bank had forecast that slack in the economy…
