Need motivation for cutting debt? Look stateside

The debt problems of the global financial system are your problems. So pay down your credit card, credit line and mortgage. Making your household balance sheet tidier has the fortunate spillover effect of saving our economy. From what? Just look at what’s happening in the United States: The housing market is a disaster, weak consumer […]

Our Parents’ First Mortgage

81% of Ontarians say it’s more difficult to own a home now than it was for their parents. That comes from this Ipsos Reid/Ontario Real Estate Association survey. That’s interesting because our parents had to put down 25% to purchase a home. Young buyers nowadays can get their foot in the door with just 5% down. […]

Why Canadian mortgage rates are on a roller coaster

If there’s one question being kicked around the barbecue more than any other this summer, it’s probably this: should I lock in my variable rate mortgage? But with interest rates bouncing around, to the point where they make a mortgage-rate chart look more like the diagram of a rollercoaster, homeowners can be forgiven if they […]

Tweaked ARM addresses broker concerns over alternative lending

With tweaks to its variable-rate mortgage, Equitable Trust is acknowledging what many brokers fear: one or two years on the alternative side can improve a client’s credit, but often isn’t enough to get them into the A sphere. “Every borrower who goes to the Alt-A/B sphere aims to be there only for one or two […]

RBC Boosts Fixed Mortgage Rates

Fixed rates are on the rise, following a dramatic 35 basis point rebound in the 5-year bond yield (which leads 5-year fixed rates). RBC has announced rate increases ranging from 0.10 percentage points on a 1-year fixed to 0.15 on a 5-year fixed. The changes take effect tomorrow. This doesn’t mean it’s time to panic. Today’s move means […]

Ontario broker lobbies for tighter ‘mortgage suitability’ regs

By Vernon Clement Jones The head of a large Ontario brokerage – and VP of the province’s mortgage broker association, IMBA – is lobbying for “better-defined” guidelines around “mortgage suitability” in the governing act, arguing it would help fend off competition from the banks. “It’s something that’s much talked about among brokers, many of who […]

Banks competing fiercely for borrowers

Canada’s banks are locked in a war of attrition this summer, grinding down mortgage rates and competing more fiercely for personal loans in an effort to steal customers from each other. Stuck in a market where the Canadian consumer is already highly leveraged and more concerned with paying down existing debt, the market for new […]

Canadians aim to pay mortgages sooner

Canadian homebuyers are showing “a high level of financial literacy,” according to a new Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. survey that found both high levels of research and a determination to pay off mortgages quickly. The survey, released Wednesday, said 75 per cent of respondents felt it “very important” to pay off their mortgages as soon […]

Who says it takes two? Many first time homebuyers fly solo on the house-hunt

Who says it takes two? Many first time homebuyers fly solo on the house-hunt – 2011 TD Canada Trust First Time Homebuyers Report finds majority of men and a third of women purchase their first home on their own – TO VIEW AN HTML SOCIAL MEDIA VERSION OF THIS RELEASE PLEASE VISIT http://www.smrmediaroom.ca/TDFirstTimeBuyer TORONTO, June 15, […]

Brokers facing uphill battle to win bigger cut of $215B HELOC market

By Vernon Clement Jones Home equity lines of credit represent 22 per cent of all Canadian mortgages, or a whopping $215 billion, according to a new CAAMP report – the first to track that segment of the market largely closed to brokers. “As far as we know this is the first time anyone has tracked […]

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