A Two-Month High for the 5-year Yield Canada’s #1 fixed mortgage rate indicator, the 5-year bond yield, has stubbornly refused to challenge its March record low. And now it has turned upwards, closing Thursday at the highest level in two months: 0.44%. Concerns over inflation and massive government debt issuance are two key reasons. A close above 0.55% could indicate...
Well, you don’t see this every day: The head of Canada’s housing agency seemingly guilting lenders into sending him business and tightening mortgage lending. In a letter to the industry originally leaked to Bloomberg (see below), CMHC CEO Evan Siddall chided and accused mortgage lenders of: short-sightedly sending too much business to CMHC’s competitors creating a “very significant drag” on...
—The Mortgage Report: Aug. 5— Is This a Joke?: “The CMHC defines housing as affordable when ‘it costs less than 30% of a household’s before-tax income,’ which includes rent or mortgage (principal and interest) payments, property taxes and other home bills,” reports the Financial Post. The punchline is, you have to move to a remote fishing village in Newfoundland to...
—The Mortgage Report: Weekend Edition— It Might as Well Have: On Wednesday, the Bank of Canada threw caution to the wind and changed its playbook. It pledged not to hike rates until “the 2 percent inflation target is sustainably achieved.” The significance of that statement is now sinking in and here’s why. Normally, the Bank of Canada doesn’t wait for...
—The Mortgage Report: June 23— Prices Will Fall, Unless They Don’t: “Short-term uncertainty will lead to severe declines in sales activity and in new construction,” CMHC reported Tuesday. “House prices will fall as well and are unlikely to recover over the horizon of this report (through 2022).” But that statement is a tad general. It would be a mistake to...
A Recovery for the Ages: Against all odds, and despite the biggest unemployment surge in a 3-month span ever, stocks have erased 2020 losses. ICYMI: Private default insurer Genworth Canada saw no need to follow CMHC and tighten its mortgage rules. Canada Guaranty, which has the lowest loss ratio in the mortgage insurance industry, made the same determination, saying, “Given...
The Mortgage Report – June 8 2:35 p.m. Update CMHC on Its Own: If you’re buying with less than 20% down and can’t qualify under CMHC’s stricter insured mortgage rules, you still have options. Effective July 1, CMHC is lowering the maximum debt you can carry, raising its minimum credit score to 680 and banning certain borrowed down payments. But...
Normally, you don’t rock the boat when you’re already taking on water, but that’s what CMHC has done. Despite a weakened housing market, the nation’s largest default insurer is making it tougher for people to get a mortgage. That is, for borrowers with higher debt loads, lower credit scores and borrowed down payments. Here’s CMHC’s official announcement. Its changes take...
The Mortgage Report – May 31 And One of Them’s Bad: If you’re rooting for lower mortgage rates, one of the following must happen: Bond yields must drop to record lows Bond yields steer fixed mortgage rates and are largely a reflection of Canada’s economic (inflation) outlook Rooting for economic pain—so mortgage rates fall—isn’t exactly a patriotic sentiment, so we’d...
The Mortgage Report – May 27 Shop Rates, Says Bank of Canada: “The price of a mortgage can vary a lot among lenders…You’ll most likely find a lower interest rate if you do your homework and are willing to negotiate.”—Bank of Canada The BoC Does Move Fixed Rates: It’s a misconception that the Bank of Canada only influences variable mortgage...
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