The perils of home buying without a rainy-day fund

Few people would walk even a 10-foot-high tightrope without a net. Even with a reward, the fall wouldn’t be worth it if something went wrong. Yet people who buy homes without access to emergency funds are walking a figurative tightrope every day. When you get a mortgage with no savings, the unforeseen is your enemy. […]

Hows your Mortgage War Chest?

Hows your Mortgage War Chest? Would you walk a tightrope without a net? Skydive without a quality parachute? Rock climb without a harness? Then why do so many people go into a mortgage without emergency funds? Any honest mortgage broker will tell you this is a bad idea. It’s a metaphorical extreme sport if you […]

HELOC Countdown Begins

Those interested in a readvanceable mortgage (or HELOC), valued between 66% and 80% of their home’s value had best act with haste. Lending limits for home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) could start falling as soon as the end of August, according to some new information. A trusted mortgage broker in Vancouver can help provide […]

The HELOC Clock Starts Ticking

If you want a HELOC orreadvanceable mortgageequalling 66%-80% of your home value, be ready to act soon. We’re hearing that some banks may start cutting back on their HELOC lending limits by the end of this month. These moves relate to OSFI’s new B-20 underwriting guidelines, which require federally regulated lenders to limit new HELOCs to 65% loan-to-value (LTV), from 80% […]

Banking watchdog backs off its get-tough approach to mortgage lending

By Susan Pigg Business Reporter Ottawa’s banking watchdog has backed down on one of its toughest proposals for reining in household debt — making sure that Canadians’ credit risk is evaluated every time they renew their mortgages. In an unusual “interim update” of tighter lending guidelines it hopes to issue this summer, the Office of the Superintendent […]

Brokers ain’t lying down for OSFI

The federal regulator threatening to overhaul the guidelines lenders and brokers work under is now in receipt of the channel’s most exhaustive response to those proposals — in short, a list of what ain’t broke and don’t need to be fixed, say brokers. “It is important to note the many positive features of the Canadian […]

Handle lines of credit with care

Give people enough line of credit and they’ll hang themselves with debt. The bad boy of borrowing products – that’s the line of credit. Recently, the federal government asked the banks to stop blithely handing out home-equity credit lines to people. In his new book The Wealthy Barber Returns, David Chilton writes that credit lines can […]

CHILTON TAKES A SWIPE AT REVERSE MORTGAGES

The list of detractors of reverse mortgage has another name added to it: David Chilton, otherwise known as ‘the wealthy barber’, after the title of this famous book on personal finance. At a speaking engagement Thursday night in Scarborough, Ont., Chilton discussed various mistakes people make while managing their financial affairs. Taking out reverse mortgage, […]

Top 5 Mortgage Trends of 2011

Cheap money fuelled anotherbuoyant year for real estate in 2011. That helped housing values climb a wall of worry (prices rose another 4.6% Y/Y as of November) despite numerous predictions of a correction. Mortgage balances went along for the ride, growing another 7%. 2011 was a year marked by new mortgage regulations and a rate market that continually surprised most […]

Six questions you should ask before adding more debt

ROMA LUCIW – Globe and Mail Update Catherine and her husbandtapped into their first home equity line of credit 15 years ago, when they needed $30,000 to buy a car. The rate on the line of credit was attractive and, having been mortgage-free for a decade, the Thornhill couple figured it would be a quick and easy […]

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