Friday Free-for-all!
It’s Friday and that means it’s open topic free-for-all news round up time! Here are a few stories I’ve noticed this week:
-Lower mainland house prices drop below 2007 levels
-Shiller: Canadian housing bust looms
-Plunge-O-meter: Van prices down more than $30k
-Quattro: Yaletown comes to Surrey, burns down
-Vancouver homeless top priority for Mayoral candidates
-55% of Canadian workers live paycheque to paycheque
-Ottawa: No need to boost deposit insurance
-Calgary house prices keep on dropping
-The next bubble: Equity and commodity markets?
-IMF: US likely headed for deep prolonged recession
-Global recession could drive oil to $50 in 2009
-Michigan home sells for $1.75
So what are you seeing out there? Post your news, links and thoughts here and have an excellent weekend!
note: any conversation on Vancouver, real estate or economics is allowed, please keep it civilized. When posting articles please only quote pertinent points and link to the original instead of pasting the entire article here. Pasting a link will automatically create a clickable hot-link. Thanks!
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October 6th, 2008 at 1:20 am
Vandude:
As I said, the notion that 60-year mortgages are on the table is hard to believe… but my understanding of the maximum amortization period in Canada is that it’s only a maximum if you want/need government-backed insurance. If you want a longer term than 35 years, you just have to pony up for (more costly) private insurance.
From the BCREA website, there’s info on how the “outlawed” 40-year products offered by name-brand brokerages are still, in fact, available:
http://www.bcrea.bc.ca/economi.....rtgage.htm
“Private insurers are still free to insure 40-year amortization and 100 per cent loan-to-value mortgage products, but the lack of government backing will lead to sizeable increase in risk. This may mean the elimination of these products after October 15, or a higher insurance cost for the borrower.”
I haven’t found anything in a google search about 60-year products per se, but I will ask my friend for more info. My guess is that it’s not offered by name-brand institutions, but sketchier companies. In the meantime: anyone else know about the availability/popularity of crazy-long mortgages in Canada? If there’s something you can point to on the web that definitively says these are unavailable, that would be helpful, too…
October 5th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
60 YEARS? Are you sure you or your friend isn’t fibbing? I have a couple of friends who are mortgage brokers and 40 years is the MAX.
Stop trying to make the bears feel happy.
“138 subpriming the pump Says:
October 5th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
A friend of mine bought in Vancouver at the beginning of summer. She and hubby got a mortgage from a broker in Alberta. I can’t even believe the terms: 5% down, and 60 year amortization! I didn’t even know this was possible… ”
October 5th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Sluggo – John is deliberately satirical for laughs, unlike Dave who either drank the Koolaid or thinks facile blog posts will prop a falling market.
One is intentionally funny, the other is just funny. But enjoy them both while they’re here; they’ll both disappear in a couple of months.
October 5th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Worst-case scenario is approaching rapidly
The credit crisis, which has been building slowly for the past year, is now moving so fast that governments around the world are finding it impossible to keep pace.
http://business.timesonline.co.....888251.ece