The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation insures nearly $600 billion worth of mortgage insurance. That’s almost one third of the national GDP.
Much of the discussion about what’s wrong with the housing market focuses on the CMHC, which now counts as one of the country’s largest financial companies, owing to its substantial portfolio of mortgage guarantees covering nearly $600-billion of outstanding home loans, roughly 30% of Canada’s GDP.
Critics say the CMHC is under-charging for its policies, which has opened the door for housing speculators and enabled banks to push the risk of default on hundreds of billions of dollars of mortgages onto the shoulders of government — bottom line, the CMHC is the primary cause of the bubbly market.
In each Annual Report from 1976 onwards, reference has been made to the diminishing viability of the corporation
Read the full article over at the Province for an interesting overview of the history and potential problems faced by the CMHC.
