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CategoryMortgage Tips

Posted Interest rates

Bank of Canada action not always prudent or correct…

Have to share this article giving us some history on the accuracy of the Bank of Canada (BOC)  interest rate forecasts…   This should get you thinking a little the next time you hear the  BOC forecasts…. Take a look at this Historical Rates chart.. look at the Bank Prime section…   You will notice some trends of rates hikes followed by rate drops…

We aren’t saying BOC rates will fall anytime soon… it’s clear the rate will go up…. but there is no straight line increase if you look back in history… Increases are followed by decreases…

-1992.. the BOC erred and raised rates thinking the economy was strong but they quickly retreated and reversed those increases after realizing it was too much, too soon.

-1995…the Quebec referendum year… remember that?  I do.. I bought a house that year… and interest rates went up 1.00% overnight after fears of a Quebec ‘YES’ vote was more than possible… but then rates dropped like a rock and remained low for several years…

-2000….another recession… the dot.com, dot.bomb error of hi-tech stock greed…  rates had climbed in 1998 and 1999 but dropped in 2001 and remained low once again…

-2008…the U.S. mortgage crisis… the worst Global recession since the Great Depression of the ’30s…. we saw BOC drop the rate to a modern-day record low…Bank Prime was 2.25%…

-2010…the BOC kept it’s promise to raise rates and increased the rate by 0.75% over a 3 month span to 3.00%….

-2011…. ?????  the BOC is expected to raise rates by as much as 1.00% this year, and another 1.50% next year, according to the RBC Economist…. Did the BOC raise rates too quickly?  Can our economy absorb these increases?   Questions that won’t be answered for a while…

It doesn’t mean you have to sit and do nothing

But this doesn’t mean you have to stand by and be a spectator.   By keeping informed with historical trends and understanding your own personal situation, you can be in control…. Understand where you fit in… Is Fixed rate better for you now?  Does Variable Rate still make sense for you?   Can you handle the potential increases that are coming?    A good Mortgage Broker can help guide you to the right answer… Remember, it’s your mortgage, your payment…your decision.

Posted Case study

Listen to the Professor about how to save money.

Professor Moshe Milevsky is regarded as one of Canada’s leading Financial Experts… He’s written several books on building and preserving your wealth.  He’s also done several studies on debt and mortgages.   (make sure to visit his site here)

One of my favorites, and one of his best case studies, called “Why these eggs belong in one basket”, was about a strange phenomenon that seemed unique to Canadians.   We seem to take the rule of diversification and apply it to our debts.   We would rather have a mortgage, a credit card, a car loan, a line of credit, etc…when we should really be looking at consolidating these debts into the lowest possible interest rate.

He concluded that a typical family with $95,000 in total debts, with $2,700 in the bank, is losing about $1,000 per year by diversifying their debts instead of consolidating.   Now apply that to your own situation…. maybe your debts total $300,000 or more, how much are you losing per year?  $3,000, $4,000 per year or more?

I have my own opinion on why, we Canadians, do this… it must have something to do with our being so conservative….  Our parents taught us to pay off our mortgage first… get rid of that mortgage…. This is good advice… but somehow we thought it was okay to buy that car with a loan or a lease.. after all, everyone finances their car, right?   And then there’s the Home Shows on TV… ah yes… We must have the latest in home decor…etc.. you get the picture…Symptoms of the ‘must have now’ generation (a subject for another day).

The Federal Govt thinks Personal Debt levels will go down if we change Mortgage Rules….  By making it harder to get a mortgage, we will slow personal spending habits… My advice is to listen to the Professor…  Take your debt, roll it into your mortgage, pay less interest and save money… It’s really that simple…

Should we encourage home ownership or renting?

I found this article about the effects of making it harder to buy a house….. Here’s one of the statements that got me thinking..  “Rather than buy a home for half a million, many are moving out of the community to rent, or living rent free with their parents and buying all this junk.” I wonder how true this is.   I must admit, I know several people that are living at home in their 30’s, 40’s and even longer…. They don’t seem motivated to buy a house.

Final message is that Debt Consolidation is not a dirty word.   It’s good money management.

Posted 20 Comments on CMHC, Genworth double charge…. did you pay twice and not know it? Case study

CMHC, Genworth double charge…. did you pay twice and not know it?

We’ve all heard the saying, ‘necessary evil’….. You know… something that we need or must have but don’t necessary like….  kinda like that cough syrup that doesn’t taste so good but you know you need it to feel better.

Default mortgage insurance is a ‘necessary evil’…. without it, we wouldn’t be able to buy a home with less than a 20% down payment with low interest rates.  But what if you bought a house, paid the CMHC or Genworth insurance….and a few years later you bought a bigger home or you refinanced your house for some home renos or debt consolidation?  Do you have to pay CMHC or Genworth insurance again?  If so, how much will this cost?

A Financial Planner’s story gives new meaning to ‘necessary evil’

One of my reader’s, a Financial Planner, shared a recent experience…. and I must admit, this isn’t the first time I have seen or heard about this happening…His client had a CMHC insured mortgage and then later wanted to refinance the mortgage for some home renos… It appears his client was charged FULL CMHC insurance premiums on the entire mortgage, AGAIN!!   This is not right…. and we call this DOUBLE CHARGING.…

A CMHC or Genworth or Canada Guranty insured mortgage can be refinanced with REDUCED insurance premiums charged ONLY on the new funds. It is up to the submitting Lender or Banker to inform the Insurer that the current mortgage is already insured.    Unfortunately, I have seen and heard of other cases where the Banker did not have the experience or knowledge or cared to take the time to inquire if the current mortgage was already insured…  and then went on to simply process the application as a NEW CMHC or Genworth insured loan (Canada Guaranty is fairly new and I have not seen any cases involving them yet)…  And the borrower gets stuck paying the FULL COST again….

How much would a mistake like this cost?

Well, here’s an example and some formulas to follow…

Let’s assume we have someone who bought a house for $350,000 in January 2008 and they required a 95% loan to value mortgage, or $332,500.  They took a 35 year amortization. They would have paid mortgage insurance of 3.15% or $10,473.75 giving them an original starting mortgage balance of $342,973.75 (the insurance gets added to the mortgage and is not payable up front).

Fast forward to today…. their home is worth $402,000…their mortgage balance is approximately $331,149 with a 32 year amortization remaining…. they want to refinance up to 90% of the value of the home…  that would give them $40,200 in new funds and their mortgage would be $361,800 (before insurance)…  The borrower will be charged additional insurance on the new funds only at the rate of 4.65% or $1,869.30.….the new mortgage is $363,669.30.

But what if your Banker didn’t submit your application to CMHC or Genworth as a previously insured mortgage?  What if your Banker sends your CMHC insured mortgage to Genworth or your Genworth insured mortgage to CMHC?   What if you weren’t given credit for the previous insurance you had paid?   Think this can’t happen?  Guess again…it’s happened before and it sounds like it’s happening again.

And now the results of the Banker’s mistake

That same mortgage will cost you $6,813.90 in extra mortgage insurance.  That’s because your banker submitted your application to the insurer as an entirely new mortgage application.   You will be paying new insurance on the entire mortgage….  Here’s the formula:  $361,800 x 2.40% or $8,683.20… your new mortgage is $370,483.20….a difference of $6,813.90…. that’s right….an overcharge of $6,813.90…. and remember, this gets added to your mortgage so you are paying interest on this for 32 years!!… The additional interest will cost you another $4,915 in interest… that’s a grand total of $11,728.90 of unnecessary expense… this isn’t necessary, it’s just evil.

We can only hope that this problem isn’t widespread.   If you’ve experienced something similar then I suggest speaking with your Mortgage Broker to get a review… I would certainly be interested in hearing about it.

Posted Mortgage News

Social networks, internet and Personal referrals….The test of time.

Information is hitting us at an astounding rate… Used to be radio, TV and newspapers ….then came the internet…now it’s social network like twitter and facebook or personal blogs…. Mortgage info and opinions are everywhere…It’s as simple as doing a Google or Bing search on your iPad or mobile phone..

But how reliable is the info you are getting and can you find what you really want online?  After all, we’re not buying a new TV or appliance…. this is a mortgage, a huge debt…

I did a search on ‘mortgage’ and got 3.5million possibilities.   I narrowed it down to ‘mortgage rates canada’ and still got 1.3million sites…how could anyone know which site is best for them?  Or credible?

I tried one more time…‘ best mortgage product for married couple buying their third home with one child in Ontario’… there, that’s quite specific.. only got 5,710 possibilities…

Many of the sites were small businesses but a lot were blogs, and that’s ok…I like blogs… Some of the sites are great.  But how many of these sites really know what they are talking about?   I was quite disappointed to see that many of these sites were being run by unqualified people with little or no practical experience in the Mortgage or Financial Services industry.  And this really troubles me.

So here are a few tips to finding a credible site or blog expert:

-is the writer or editor easily found and identifiable?

-how many years of experience does this person have in this industry?

-what makes that person an expert or an authority?

-how much practical time does this person have in the business? (are they all theory and no practical experience?)

-is the site or blog personally managed by the creator or editor?

-are there any sponsored links or banner ads on the site and if so, is there any possible conflict by having that sponsor?

-would that sponsor still allow for impartial writing or distribution of information? (careful, the answer isn’t always that easy)

THE TEST OF TIME…..In the end, I find that most of us still value the opinion of a trusted friend, a colleague or business associate or a family member.  These people’s opinions, within our circle of trust, still carry more weight than any internet site…  The internet is great for gathering info and opinions but be sure you know where that info is coming from and what the motives are behind that info…

Posted Mortgage News

TD taking action with new collateral mortgage

No, the hand-cuffs are still on if you took a TD Mortgage recently.. yes, they are still being registered as a collateral charge and not the normal, conventional charge…

But I heard from a good source that TD is working on changing their policies to allow for the transfer-in of collateral mortgages.  That would mean that TD would accept collateral mortgages from other financial institutions should new clients wants to bring their mortgage to TD.

But how does this help a TD client that is up for negotiation with their mortgage when TD knows they cannot transfer that mortgage out without having to pay new legal fees to move that mortgage?   The borrower loses their leverage to negotiate…it’s really that simple…  here’s a great article from Gail Vax-Oxlade telling us what she thinks about TD’s new collateral mortgage.  Remember, collateral mortgages are not accepted by other financial institutions for transfers….

This subject isn’t going away… we will see if other Banks will follow TD’s lead and go with a collateral mortgage charge or whether they will accept collateral mortgages for transfers.  Stay tuned for more on this major shift in mortgage registration.

And who will pay that extra cost to transfer mortgages in and convert them to TD’s collateral charge?   For now, it’s TD picking up the cost, but does anyone really expect that to continue?   At some point, that cost will most likely be passed to the consumer.

TD is taking a big risk.. maybe it’s a calculated risk… they certainly have the deep pockets to pay for this.. at least for a little while…. I’m sorry to say it looks like the TD borrower is going to lose out in the end.