The Mortgage Report: April 5 Many modest-income Canadians who have never owned a home may never own a home, at least not an average home. That is, unless they can live almost anywhere (work remotely, for example), and/or they’re buying with someone else (e.g., a significant other). Here’s why… First-time homebuyers now expect to pay $433,000 on average, according to...
The Feds would like you to think they want to help first-time buyers. The Liberals’ over-hyped and costly First-time Home Buyer Incentive is a case in point. “The First-time Home Buyer Incentive makes it easier for you to buy a home,” they say. What the government omits to mention is that it’s stood by and allowed the mortgage qualifying rate...
The Liberal government wants to give its much-criticized First-Time Home Buyer Incentive (FTHBI) a redo. In its Fall Economic Statement this week, the government said it’s going to make it easier for borrowers to qualify. Effective “spring 2021,” first-timers who use the program will be able to purchase a home up to 4.5 times their household income (currently four times)...
—The Mortgage Report: Oct. 23— It seems HSBC Canada may start selling through mortgage brokers once again. The bank had a “Head of Mortgage Broker Channel” job posting on its website until this morning. We then confirmed with a separate reliable source that the news appears to be true. HSBC was not able to comment by press time. The move...
It didn’t take the government long to propose changes to the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive (FTHBI). Just 10 days after the program launched, and following criticism that the Liberals’ new program didn’t address housing needs in high-priced markets, the Libs have tweaked it. Effective as soon as November, if you live in one of three high-cost regions, qualifying for the...
If you’ve been waiting for details about the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive (FTHBI) program, hoping it would help you qualify for a mortgage, you may be disappointed. The government finally showed all its cards with the FTHBI scheme and we can’t find many cases where it would actually improvesomeone’s buying power—i.e., bridge the gap between high home prices and what...
The details on the government’s much-hyped First-Time Home Buyer Incentive (FTHBI) continue to trickle out. The latest clues on its operation come from Evan Solomon’s interview with CMHC CEO Evan Siddall. In that interview, Siddall comments on some lingering FTHBI question marks, namely: The Maximum Home Price The maximum home price under the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive ranges from $505,000...
So many young people want to build home equity and get out from under their landlord’s thumb. But they can’t. They don’t have the down payment to qualify for a mortgage. For many modest-income Canadians, saving up the 5 percent minimum down payment (or 20 percent if you want to avoid CMHC insurance) can take years—many, many years. While some...
It used to be a lot easier to understand mortgages. But since January 2016 alone, we’ve seen: Minimum down payments increased to 10% for any portion of a mortgage above $500,000 Restrictions on refinancing Rates become much more dependent on: loan-to-value (because of changes to default insurance) amortization credit scores A stress test required for all insured mortgages, using the...
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