National Mortgage Related News Archive

• Retiring with a mortgage? You have options
  Feb 01, 2012 — Continuing to make house payments may not be everyone's fantasy heading into the golden years. But there are lots of options to consider for those in their mid-50s with sizable mortgages.
  Source: Mary Gooderham, The Globe and Mail
  
• Mortgage clampdown is positive
  Feb 01, 2012 — Canada's banking regulators are putting the screws to lending practices they see as risky-particularly in the bubble condo markets that are forming in Toronto and Vancouver. Good.
  Source: Philip Porado, Advisor.ca
  
• Lending tightens for self-employed, immigrants
  Feb 01, 2012 — CIBC's wholesale mortgage arm, FirstLine, quietly announced Tuesday that it will no longer accept new applications from "stated income" homebuyers who can't prove they have the annual net income to qualify for home loans.
  Source: Susan Pigg, Moneyville
  
• Average Calgary home sale price fell in January
  Feb 01, 2012 — Preliminary, unofficial MLS data shows the average price for both single-family and condo sales in Calgary fell in January compared with a year ago. According to the website of local realtor Mike Fotiou, of First Place Realty, single-family home sales in January of 773 had an average price of $438,682 and a median of $395,000.
  Source: Mario Toneguzzi, Calgary Herald
  
• Commission-free real estate brokerage opening
  Jan 31, 2012 — The ComFree real estate sales network announced today it is launching two new commission-free brokerages in Ontario and Alberta. They will operate under the name of Commonsense Network Brokerage, part of the ComFree network. The head office for Alberta will be in Edmonton.
  Source: Mario Toneguzzi, Calgary Herald
  
• Economy shrinks unexpectedly in November
  Jan 31, 2012 — The Canadian economic recovery is showing signs of stalling, with real gross domestic product surprisingly falling back by 0.1 per cent in November after no gain the previous month, according to a report from Statistics Canada.
  Source: Julian Beltrame, The Globe and Mail
  
• Canadians teeter on edge of debt cliff
  Jan 31, 2012 — While Canada has spent the last few years boasting of its escape from the global credit crisis and its quick recovery from recession, both Carney and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty are sounding the alarm on household debt, warning it has become the biggest home-grown risk to the financial system.
  Source: Andrea Hopkins, The Financial Post
  
• U.S. home prices dropped in November
  Jan 31, 2012 — U.S. home prices fell for a third straight month in nearly all cities tracked by a major index. The declines show that most homeowners are not reaping the benefits from some signs of an improving housing market.
  Source: Derek Kravitz, The Globe and Mail
  
• Lenders increasingly liberal on mortgages
  Jan 30, 2012 — Canada's banking regulator is concerned over what it sees as lenders growing "increasingly liberal" with mortgages and lines of credit tied to a borrower's home equity.
  Source: Michael Babad, The Globe and Mail
  
• Low interest rate may push up oil price
  Jan 30, 2012 — Crude may rise this week after the Federal Reserve committed to keeping interest rates near a record low through 2014 and the European Union agreed to ban crude imports from Iran, a Bloomberg survey showed.
  Source: News Staff, Calgary Herald
  
• It's not too late to rescue your retirement
  Jan 30, 2012 — We've all likely heard it by now, Canadian debt loads are too high, our savings rates are dropping and more of us are concerned that our retirement goals are unrealistic.
  Source: Sunny Freeman, The Globe and Mail
  
• No housing crash for Canada: BMO
  Jan 30, 2012 — Bank of Montreal says Canada's somewhat pricey housing market is likely to cool, not crash. The bank's economists say the only real trouble spot is Vancouver, where there are plenty of vacant high-priced condos going begging.
  Source: The Candian Press, The Globe and Mail
  
• Real estate may do an encore
  Jan 30, 2012 — With real estate being one of the top performing sectors in 2011 - the S&P/TSX Capped REIT index was up by 15 per cent, or 24 percentage points above the return for the S&P/TSX composite - some have argued real estate won't generate a repeat performance this year.
  Source: Barry Critchley, Montreal Gazette
  
• CMHC backing fewer loans
  Jan 30, 2012 — A CMHC spokesman confirmed that it had approached a number of lenders at the end of 2011 about reducing its "bulk or portfolio insurance" after third-quarter results showed the agency had committed to back $541-billion in mortgages. CMHC, which guarantees mortgages held by financial institutions, is ultimately backed by the federal government and needs approval to go over the $600-billion limit - something that would create greater risk for taxpayers should the housing market collapse.
  Source: Garry Marr, The Financial Post
  
• RRSPs or TFSAs: Which is better to use
  Jan 28, 2012 — Do you really want to raid your retirement fund to buy your first home? Nobody sets out to do it, but given the price of Canadian homes, some consumers almost have no choice but to take advantage of the federal government's Home Buyers' Plan.
  Source: Garry Marr, The Financial Post
  
• Real estate: Investing in the U.S.
  Jan 27, 2012 — It wasn't so long ago that the last thing on a U.S. realtor's mind was attempting to divine the motivations of potential Canadian buyers. But times have changed, as this excerpt from one real estate investing website reveals: "Canada is a busy city where people lead a rough life trying to be the fittest. There is always a continuous race for power and money. Relaxing in Canada is almost impossible. To run away from the busy and competitive life, people usually opt to go abroad, especially to a sunny place."
  Source: Rob Magazine, The Globe and Mail
  
• Commercial real estate market as busy as ever
  Jan 27, 2012 — Talk to almost anyone in our commercial real estate industry and they will tell you they are as busy as ever, some achieving record volumes last year and many starting 2012 without breaking stride.
  Source: David Parker, The Calgary Herald
  
• Boomers "Punch Drunk" on household debt
  Jan 26, 2012 — People over the age of 45 and already-heavy borrowers are driving virtually all of the increase in Canada's household debt load, a new study has found.
  Source: Tavia Grant, The Globe and Mail
  
• Loonie soars back to parity
  Jan 26, 2012 — The Canadian dollar rallied to parity with its U.S. counterpart for the first time in almost three months as a Federal Reserve pledge to extend its freeze on borrowing costs raised demand for higher-yielding assets.
  Source: Bloomberg News, The Financial Post
  
• Real estate may do an encore
  Jan 26, 2012 — With real estate being one of the top performing sectors in 2011 - the S&P/TSX Capped REIT index was up by 15%, or 24 percentage points above the return for the S&P/TSX composite - some have argued real estate won't generate a repeat performance this year.
  Source: Barry Critchley, The Financial Post
  
• What happens when housing bubble pops?
  Jan 26, 2012 — The signs of a bubble are unequivocal. At 13 years and counting, Canada's current housing boom is one of the longest-lasting in the world, the Bank of Nova Scotia noted in a recent report. The real price of Canadian homes has increased by 85 per cent on average since 1998. Prices stagnated in 2008, at the height of the financial crisis, but they were back on the rise again as soon as 2009, when they grew by nearly 20 per cent, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association.
  Source: Erica Alini, Macleans
  
• Quebec condo mania setting records
  Jan 25, 2012 — Condominium resales continued to set records last year in the Greater Montreal Area, but analysts warn about the possibility of over-construction of units in Laval, among other areas.
  Source: Allison Lampert, The Gazette
  
• Catching up your nest egg
  Jan 25, 2012 — There's a big opportunity if you're among the many Canadians with tens of thousands of dollars in unused RRSP contribution room built up over previous years. Consider "catching up" with RRSP catch-up loans.
  Source: Jonathan Chevreau, The Financial Post
  
• Calgary condo fetches record $8.3-million
  Jan 25, 2012 — Calgary condo sales have reached new heights after a luxury unit fetched a record $8.3 million, before construction has begun. The 5,260 square-foot condo will cover the entire 12th floor of the 15-storey development called The River, located along the Elbow River, which flows through the southern portion of the city.
  Source: Postmedia News, The Financial Post
  
• Canada's job market weakest on record
  Jan 25, 2012 — As the monthly labour numbers show a bleak picture of the Canadian job market, those who are working are more likely to be underpaid than they were a year ago, according to a CIBC report.
  Source: Christine Dobby, The Financial Post
  
• Canadian economy to weaken in 2012, IMF
  Jan 24, 2012 — Canada's recovery is being dragged down by a cascading crisis in Europe and weakening conditions elsewhere, the International Monetary Fund suggests in its latest economic outlook.
  Source: The Canadian Press, CTV
  
• Connect the housing bubble dots
  Jan 23, 2012 — A few months ago I heard leading Canadian investor Eric Sprott speak, and he said a very basic thing that struck a chord. He said that you should not be afraid to connect the dots. The dots are usually in front of you, but people don’t often look beyond the single dot.
  Source: Ted Rechtshaffen, The Globe and Mail
  
• Time ripe for mortgage move
  Jan 23, 2012 — Local mortgage brokers aren't expecting a flood of inquiries but say the time may be ripe for those with a stable income who are buying, renewing their mortgage or aren't looking at major penalties to refinance.
  Source: Ellen Van Wageningen, The Windsor Star
  
• Vancouver in 'least affordable' housing markets
  Jan 23, 2012 — Vancouver is the world's second-least affordable major city to buy a house, according to an annual survey of global housing markets. The Eighth Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey covers 325 metropolitan markets around the world.
  Source: Steve Ladurantaye, The Globe and Mail
  
• 2/3 of us have no financial plan for retirement
  Jan 23, 2012 — More than half of Canadians (58%) aren't financially prepared for retirement and more than two thirds (68%) have no financial plan to get to retirement, says an ING DIRECT poll released Monday.
  Source: Jonathan Chevreau, The Financial Post