—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...
—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...
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...
There’s a big chunk of Canadians out there who: Dislike the mortgage renewal process Are risk averse, and Would gladly trade their stodgy old 5-year fixed term for something longer, if the economics made sense. Ten-year mortgages could fit the bill, if the rates weren’t as high. Knowing that, C.D. Howe issued areportlast month on how lenders might be able...
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...
Where did all the first-time buyers go? New data from CMHC suggests there are noticeably fewer of them out there (stats below). Maybe they’re hibernating until they can save up a bigger down payment, amid home prices that (in many regions) remain near record highs. Or, perhaps fewer of them are able to pass the mortgage stress test given today’s...
Here are seven things you may not know about Canada’s mortgage market. The source: CMHC’s insightful new Residential Mortgage Industry Report. 1) Variable Rates Looked Good (Keyword Being “Looked”) Almost 3 in 10 borrowers (29%) went variable in the first quarter. That’s12 percentage points higher than two years prior. And that’s despite the historically narrow gap between fixed and variable...
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