CDN jobless rate lowest since 2008

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada’s unemployment rate fell to 7.2 percent in July, its lowest since December 2008, from 7.4 percent in June, though this was due more to people dropping out of the labor market than to job creation. Statistics Canada said Friday the economy managed to eke out 7,100 new jobs while holding on […]

The mortgage game With rates predicted to rise, should you lock in, or take a risk and how much should first timers spend?

With anticipated interest rate increases on the horizon, many homeowners are wondering whether to lock debt such as mortgages and secured lines of credit into a fixed-rate mortgage or stay variable. Even some who are mortgage free are concerned with how rate increases will impact secured lines of credit, the financing of vacation homes and […]

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 […]

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 […]

Canadian economy still near the top of G7

Canadian economy still near the top of G7 OTTAWA – Canada will continue to outperform most economically advanced countries over the next two years, even as the pace slows and risks mount, the IMF says. The International Monetary Fund’s latest forecast presents Canada as a relative sea of tranquility amid rising global turbulence from European […]

Household Debt Slowing, But Still Growing: BMO

TORONTO, June 21, 2011 – Although the growth in Canadian household debt is slowing and household assets are rising, debt ratios have pushed further above levels in the United States, and more steps need to be taken to repair the household balance sheet, according to Doug Porter, Deputy Chief Economist, and Sal Guatieri, Senior Economist […]

Surprise: Low interest rates seen sticking around

Interest rates have recently being going somewhere unexpected: down. At their trough last week, the yields on 10-year U.S. Treasuries, the benchmark North American rate, touched 3.11 per cent, the lowest level in six months and more than half a percentage point below their February peak. Yields on 10-year Government of Canada bonds have fallen, […]

The Bank of Canada released a special issue of its Review, “Lessons from the Financial Crisis”

The Bank of Canada released a special issue of its Review, “Lessons from the Financial Crisis,” which examines the recent research on the role of liquidity in the financial system, and the public policy responses that aimed to restore stability to the financial system during the crisis and foster economic recovery.

Canada gets high score on quality of life index: study

By Derek Abma and Peter O’Neil Australia is seen as having the best quality of life among industrialized countries, one ranking ahead of second-place Canada, according to a report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. However, it appears the clincher for Australia could be its high voter-turnout rates, which policy-makers in that country […]

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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