Rob McLister is a mortgage broker and the editor of the informative Canadian Mortgage Trends blog.
He’s doing a livechat at the Globe and Mail answering questions about mortgages right now.
Yesterday they published his rather bearish opinion on the future of home prices in Canada, which may suprise you coming from a mortgage broker.
“Buying the same house will be more expensive this fall than this spring,” National Bank Financial’s Peter Routledge told the Globe and Mail last month. But analysts point to a range of factors that could moderate home prices in the next six months, including higher interest rates, growing supply, modest income growth and stricter mortgage regulations. Canada’s banking regulator is weighing new mortgage rules as we speak.
Rates are the biggest wild card and the No. 1 factor that could put the brakes on home prices. Higher mortgage rates immediately make it harder for budget-strapped buyers to qualify for a mortgage. That’s why – other things being equal – as rates increase, prices usually decrease.
So if home prices potentially face headwinds, does it really make sense to run out, compete with a stampede of other buyers and purchase a home?
Read the full article here and find the live chat session here.
