Six hundred thousand Canadians weren’t paying their mortgages on July 31. They were getting by with the help of lenders who agreed to postpone their payments. Not long from now, lenders are going to cut off most of those payment deferrals. The housing risk this poses was the topic of my latest Globe column, which estimated that up to 61,000...
—The Mortgage Report: Aug. 7— Rate Complacency When you survey people about the direction of interest rates, they consistently expect “that rates will rise,” says Mortgage Professionals Canada (MPC) in a new report. That thinking is partly why 5-year fixed rates are so popular. But MPC’s recent survey indicates “that the expected amount of increase might be the smallest we’ve...
—The Mortgage Report: Weekend Edition— Renewal Tax: Borrowers get worse deals on mortgage renewals than on brand new mortgages. And it’s been that way for decades. Interest rates on renewals have historically been about nine basis-points (0.09%) higher than rates on new mortgages. That’s based on a survey of five-year uninsured mortgages from 19 of the largest federally regulated lenders...
TD Canada Trust rate cuts: Special fixed rates drop from: 3yr: 2.99% to 2.89% 5yr (high ratio): 2.99% to 2.79% Posted rates drop from: 1yr fixed: 3.59% to 3.44% 2yr fixed: 3.74% to 3.54% 5yr variable: 2.65% to 2.35% (P – 0.25%) Every time a bank cuts 1- and 2-year posted rates, it raises the chances of customers paying bigger...
Spring is officially more than a month away, but in hot housing markets “spring” homebuying season has already begun. And it’s shaping up to be a competitive one, especially with the just-announced stress test easing. A recent survey from RE/MAX suggests that more than 6 in 10 real estate agents in major cities (62%) are seeing buyers being priced out...
How much would you have to save to deal with a mortgage lender that had no in-person or telephone advisors, just ultra-low rates, live chat support and a reliable, efficient user experience? If you’re like 16% of mortgage shoppers, you wouldn’t deal with that kind of lender at all. If you’re like 18% of mortgage shoppers, you’d happily use an...
It’s a fact; little better than 1 in 4 Canadians have any idea what amortization means, according to a recently-released Ipsos survey. Surprisingly, “…Less than 1% of respondents gave a strictly correctresponse by saying only that it means “the time to pay the mortgage in full,'” Ipsos wrote in its report. Just as eye-opening, 14% of people claimed to have...
More people are researching mortgages online before they confront a lender or broker. That’s the good news. The bad news is that less than 1 in 3 are using sites like this to research mortgage rates, if CMHC’s latest data is accurate. The percentage that do use rate sites is up materially from last year’s 22%, but still too many...
As Canada’s federal election approaches, all the major parties are in vote-buying mode. The carrot they’re dangling in front of young homebuyers these days is buying power (more of it). That’s their “solution” to a problem they can’t quickly fix: high home prices. But the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is calling them out. The IMF, which is notorious for its...
If you’re a homeowner, you want your property value to escalate over time. But market fundamentals—those economic factors that drive supply and demand—aren’t alone in determining your home’s worth. There’s something else that can be just as important: what your neighbours and people you know think prices will do. Price Expectations Matter (a lot) Researchfrom Marcato and Nanda (2014) confirmed...
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