Mortgages: Nail the right term length the first time

Canadian Mortgage Trends editor Robert McLister kicks off his first in a weekly series of columns for the month for The Globe’s Home Buying sitewith this look on the best – and worst – mortgages terms out there. Finding a good mortgage rate online is a cinch. Anyone who has ever looked for rate comparison sites knows […]

Consumers rein in debt burden, but housing ‘overshooting’: CIBC

Canadians consumers are reining in their debt burdens amid repeated warnings on household borrowing from Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney and other policy makers. The growth of consumer debt has eased as of March, rising at the slowest pace since 2002, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce(CM-T70.03-0.63-0.89%) said Wednesday. “For the first time in more than a […]

Condos drive Canada’s housing start surge

Canada’s condo building frenzy showed no sign of abating last month, as housing starts surged to their highest level since 2007. While some analysts had predicted housing starts would weaken after a particularly strong March, starts in April rose to an annualized rate of 244,900, readily beating predictions of 204,000 made by most economists.   […]

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 […]

Nova Scotia’s Proposed Broker Rules

Nova Scotia has new mortgage broker regulations in the works and they look like a win for the province’s homeowners. In a nutshell, they provide NS borrowers with better disclosure and more assurance that the broker they are dealing with is competent and acting in their best interests. A few of the proposals may need […]

Canadians Dominate World’s 10 Strongest Banks

Banks from Citigroup Inc. (C) in the U.S. to BNP Paribas SA (BNP) in France are racing to shed assets and raise money ahead of new global capital rules that start taking effect in 2015. For Canadian lenders, these moves have created the opportunity to go on a shopping spree. Canada’s six largest banks have spent $37.8 billion since […]

CMHC changes may benefit alternative mortgage lenders

Mortgage companies competing against Canada’s big six banks offer an increasingly attractive opportunity for investors in the wake of new regulations governing Canada Mortgage Housing Corp., says Stephen Boland, analyst at GMP Securities. “We believe that the increased lending restrictions on the use of the CMHC will provide the alternative mortgage lenders with additional product […]

Ottawa’s spotlight has Manulife rethinking its bank

TARA PERKINS — FINANCIAL SERVICES REPORTER Ottawa’s efforts to rein in the mortgage market are forcing Manulife Financial Corp. (MFC-T11.23-0.14-1.23%) to re-evaluate its fast-growing bank, making it the first financial institution to say that it intends to move toward tighter lending to consumers in response. Manulife Bank, which allows consumers to run all of their banking, such as savings, […]

CMHC could be pulled out of mortgage insurance business, Flaherty says

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty would consider takingCanada Mortgage Housing Corp. out of the mortgage default insurance business he told the National Post’s editorial board. ‘I don’t think it’s essential that a government financial institutionprovide mortgage insurance in Canada’ “Over time, I don’t think it’s essential that a government financial institution provide mortgage insurance in Canada. I think what’s […]

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 […]

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