The rise of the miserable Canadian homeowner – Ask a Vancouver Mortgage Broker

ROB CARRICK – The Globe and Mail Consider the financial misery factor before you buy a house. That’s where the constraints of paying a mortgage and all the other usual costs of living leave you feeling frustrated and unhappy about your finances. Even real estate agents concede that such a phenomenon exists. “It’s been disturbing to watch […]

Flaherty welcomes fiscal cliff deal, but warns U.S. not yet out of the woods

OTTAWA – Canada welcomed Washington’s last-minute deal on the fiscal cliff on Wednesday, but warned that significant risks remained and urged more action to put the U.S. fiscal situation on a sustainable path. “Canada welcomes the agreement reached between the (U.S. President Barack Obama) and the Congress that protects the U.S. economy in the short […]

Carney on rates: no ‘imminent’ changes

KEVIN CARMICHAEL The Globe and Mail Published Wednesday, Oct. 24 2012, 10:37 AM EDT Last updated Wednesday, Oct. 24 2012, 7:41 PM EDT Interest rates may not head higher until well into next year, but Mark Carney wants Canadians to understand that their economy is unique in that it is “in an expansion, not a recovery.” The […]

Carney warns falling oil price could grease economy’s slide

JEREMY TOROBIN OTTAWA — The Globe and Mail Published Tuesday, Jul. 17 2012, 9:09 AM EDT Last updated Wednesday, Jul. 18 2012, 7:34 AM EDT The Bank of Canada is adding the downward drift in prices for oil and other commodities to its catalogue of threats to economic growth. In a one-page statement on his latest interest-rate decision Tuesday, […]

Mark Carney repeats that the Bank of Canada may have to raise rates

OTTAWA — Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney has said again that the bank may have to raise interest rates to keep inflation in check as Canada’s economic recovery advances. “Given the smaller output gap, given the slightly firmer underlying inflation, the possibility of withdrawal of some degree of the considerable monetary stimulus that is […]

Canadians getting the message on debt load, Carney says

JEREMY TOROBIN OTTAWA— From Wednesday’s Globe and Mail Canadian house prices are now almost five times higher than incomes, the latest illustration of why policy makers are worried about parts of the housing market. The average price is roughly 4.75 times the average income, Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney said Tuesday, noting that the historical […]

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 […]