Why we’ve locked in to a 10-year mortgage

Our new home in Scarborough is a detached, three-bedroom side-split that cost nearly $560,000.  We borrowed nearly $515,000 to buy it,  a sum  that makes me queasy. With the help of a mortgage broker, we chose a 30-year mortgage from ING Direct, and locked-in to a 10-year term at an interest rate of 3.99 per […]

45% of brokers procrastinate on re-licensing

It has come down to the wire for nearly half of Ontario’s 12,000 mortgage professionals – who, with only a month left on the clock, had yet to complete that do-or-die re-licensing course. “What can I say? That’s the industry” Joe Rosati, executive director for the Independent Mortgage Brokers Association of Ontario, told MortgageBrokerNews.ca.  “FSCO […]

BMO sends a warning to brokers

Brokers, consider yourselves warned, with a BMO exec laying out explicit plans to grow the number of mortgage specialists, needed to “take business” from competitors in a slowing market. “We’ve been … pretty clear about our objective, which is — we’ve been at 2 per cent mortgage growth for quite some time now and our […]

CMHC agreeing with brokers?

A new report is backing up a broker beef, confirming consumer credit card debt has significantly outpaced mortgage growth. “Consumer credit, which makes up the remainder of household debt, grew at a faster rate than mortgage debt in the last two decades,” reads the 2011 Canadian Housing Observer, a comprehensive CMHC report on the state […]

Mortgage-Free Eventually: RBC Poll Finds Majority of Canadians Hope to Pay Off Their Homes by Retirement

A third of older Canadians with a mortgage will carry debt into their 70’s Half of Canadians think interest rates will stay the same in the next year TORONTO, November 17, 2011— Nearly three-quarters (72 per cent) of Canadians with a mortgage hope to bemortgage-free by the time they reach age 65, but one-third (33 per cent) […]

Bid your mortgage goodbye

With today’s low mortgage rates, now is a good time to look at ways to pay off your mortgage more quickly. Fixed versus variable savings, at a glance With a base scenario of a $300,000, 25-year amortization, five-year fixed-rate mortgage at 3.45 per cent and a monthly payment of $1,496.23, if you: – Pay $100 […]

Canadian home prices resilient in third quarter

Toronto— The Canadian Press Royal LePage says home prices remained unexpectedly resilient across Canada‘s housing market in the third quarter, but the overall strength is concealing signs of moderation in some regions. In its House Price Survey and Market Survey Forecast, Royal LePage says that Canada’s residential real estate market benefited from very low interest rates and a […]

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 […]

Surge in renters lowers vacancy rate

It’s increasingly difficult to find rental housing across the country, as a lack of new inventory and a surge of would-be renters pushed the national vacancy rate lower. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said Thursday that the vacancy rate for Canada’s rental stock was 2.5 per cent in April, 2011, compared to 2.9 per cent […]

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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