Tag Archives: rules

Canada, equity, mortgage, opinion, predictions, prices

New mortgage rules drive up housing market.

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Tighter mortgage rules were intended to cool the Canadian housing market, but according to National Bank economist Marc Pinsonneault they are having the opposite effect in the short term.

The new rules require insured mortgage holders to put down a minimum of 10 per cent for any portion of a house’s price above $500,000. The 5-per-cent minimum down payment still applies for the portion of a house price below that.

Economists predicted last year the rules would temporarily drive the market up, as homebuyers raced to land a mortgage before the deadline.

But Pinsonneault says the effect will continue this year, because the new rules don’t apply to anyone who locked in a mortgage before Feb. 15 of this year, and those people have until July 1 to buy a home.

It seems like everything done in the name of ‘cooling’ the housing market has the opposite effect.  Read the full article here.

Open Topic

Friday Free-for-all!

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It’s the end of another beautiful work-week and that means it’s Friday Free-for-all time!

This is our standard end of the week news round up and open topic discussion thread for the weekend.

Here are a few recent links to kick off the chat:

–Mayors letter to Premier on housing
–Mayor pitches affordable housing idea
–We lack the facts
–Vancouver Realtor Hunger Index 38%
–4 proposals for housing affordability
–New West addresses affordability
–Did it work in Toronto?
–

So what are you seeing out there? Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!

Canada, CMHC, debt, economy, mortgage, prices, rates

Subprime lending in Canada ‘rockets’ to record high

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It’s a been a while since CMHC mortgage lending rules have been ramped back to more historical levels.

After dabbling in American style 40 year zero down mortgages we decided that might not be the best idea. Unfortunately we never did get the American style locked in interest rate for the full duration of the loan.

So now we’re back to 25 year terms and it’s more difficult to get a loan if you’re self employed.  A lot of loan applications that would have been approved a year or two ago are now being rejected.

So what affect has this had on the market so far?

Well apparently the sub-prime lending market in Canada has rocketed to a record level for one.

Capital Corp is a non-bank lender that has been operating since 1988. Their chief executive Eli Dadouch says there’s a lot of money out there for non-bank loans to higher risk borrowers.

He said there is no question it’s the top of the real estate cycle, so anybody lending out money has to be more careful today.

“People always want to deal with a bank, it’s the cheapest form of money,” he said. “When they come to us and people like us, it is because there is some type of story [behind why they can’t get credit]. It’s easy  to lend money, the talent in this business is getting it back.”

Read the full article in the Financial Post.

 

CMHC, humor, hype, mortgage, Open Topic, opinion, predictions

What will the CMHC announce?

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Who wants to play ‘guess the future’?

Apparently the CMHC is holding a conference call at 10 am EST on Feb 27th.

Some rumours are saying privatization, though it looks like most everyone agrees that would extreeeeemely unlikely at this point for a few reasons:

–Privatization would require the finance department
–No one in their right mind would take on the debt

But that doesn’t mean you can’t guess at what is going to be revealed tomorrow!

So what do you think the CMHC will announce? Privatization? Tougher underwriting standards? Branching out into commemorative figurines? A new special expert task force comprised of Brad Lamb, Bob Rennie and Angelo Mozilo?

What’s your best guess at what the CMHC will announce tomorrow?

Open Topic

FFFA! Forecasts! Mortgage! Rules! Carney!

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It’s that time of the week again, time for our Friday Free-for-all!  This is when we round up the weeks news and have our open topic discussion thread for the weekend, here are a few recent links to kick off the chat:

–IMF: You need tighter mortgage rules
–TD: forcasting for the provinces
–Teranet HPI scatter plot
–Conservative impact from RE market?
–Carney gets $400k for housing
–Luxury home decline
–Sales below 10 year average
–Stay out of New West Bob
–Home prices fall in most Canadian markets
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So what are you seeing out there? Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!