CategoryMortgage Trends

Posted January 24, 2013 Interest rates

Interest rates to stay low for longer than expected…

The, soon to be, ex-Bank of Canada Governor, Mark Carney, is leaving us with a present… During yesterday’s Rate Announcement, the first of eight regularly scheduled rate meetings this year, Carney said the economy is growing at a slower pace than expected…. we having a cooling housing market….. inflation remains low and is not an immediate concern…. Last but not least, he expects the economy will not reach it’s full capacity in late 2014 and that withdrawing any monetary policy stimulus is less imminent than previously anticipated.

End result, no rate hikes are expected til 2014… These comments come as a bit of a surprise given the Bank of Canada has wanted to raise rates for the past 2 years. Well, maybe it’s Carney’s way of giving us a departing present….Let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth. Continue reading “Interest rates to stay low for longer than expected…”

Posted January 16, 20131 Comment Mortgage News

Scotiabank closes ING Direct mortgage broker division… but who cares?

In an email sent to Mortgage Brokers today, ING announced they will close the Mortgage Broker division February 16, 2013. My first reaction was one of sadness. In the mid 2000’s, ING was a strong Lender and partner with Mortgage Brokers. They offered some great products, competitive pricing, a fair prepayment penalty calculation and had an excellent team of employees, including their senior management.

Yes, I was sad to hear they would close the Broker division… But then I asked myself how much would this affect me? my clients? How much business was I referring to ING these days? The answer soon made me realize that there isn’t any reason for sadness. I soon realized that since they made the switch to registering all their mortgages as a collateral mortgage charge, back in December 2011, I all but completely stopped recommending them to my clients. Continue reading “Scotiabank closes ING Direct mortgage broker division… but who cares?”

Posted January 3, 2013 Mortgage News

Genworth Financial $50billion increase is good for Consumers

The Federal govt controls hi-ratio mortgage lending…. (mortgages that are greater than 80% loan to value)… There is a $600 billion limit for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC… a federal corp). And a $250 billion limit for Genworth Financial Canada (a private corp).

Last year, the govt reported CMHC was fast approaching it’s $600 billion limit and that it had no intentions of increasing that limit. Then last month, the federal govt announced they would increase Genworth’s limit to $300 billon. This gives Canada’s mortgage lenders some breathing room as it now appears as though there is enough room to cover mortgages for a few years…

WHY YOU SHOULD PAY ATTENTION Continue reading “Genworth Financial $50billion increase is good for Consumers”

Posted January 2, 20131 Comment Interest rates

Personal Debt levels and Mortgage Debt levels

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 4 years, it’s impossible to not know the Federal govt’s concern about Canada’s Personal Debt level. The media has covered this topic extensively. After all, bad news sells more than good news…..

Here’s some current stats from Statistics Canada that really gets my blood boiling!…. We now carry a total debt load equal to around 164% of our annual household income. That’s at an all-time high…. The govt is convinced that we are spending too much or our income towards real estate… They have made numerous changes to mortgage lending rules that make it much tougher to qualify for a mortgage. If there really is a problem, why is the govt focusing on low-interest rate products like mortgages?

Current mortgage rates are at around 3.00%. Current credit card rates range from 9.99% to 19.99%….personal loan and car loan rates range from 6.00% to 9.00% and up. Aren’t low-interest rate products better than high-interest rate products? We have not seen any changes to these non-mortgage debt products…. Who benefits from higher rates? Yup, your banker!… Continue reading “Personal Debt levels and Mortgage Debt levels”

Posted December 18, 20122 Comments Case study

Fed govt, BIG SIX BANK’s pushed us into Fixed rates!…part 2 of 2.

IT’S NO COINCIDENCE THAT THE BIG SIX BANKS CONTINUE TO REPORT RECORD PROFITS.

The Bankers were onto something. Now if they could only keep Variable rate pricing higher or make it tougher to get a Variable rate mortgage…. In 2010, the Fed govt would help increase those Bank profits…All new Variable rate mortgage borrowers would need to qualify at the Bank posted 5 year fixed rate. The Feds said they had to tighten Mortgage Lending Rules… They had to make it tougher to qualify for a mortgage with fluctuating interest rates to ensure we would not have a ‘housing bubble’ and a ‘mortgage default problem’… This pushed out 5% more borrowers from qualifying for, and benefiting from Variable rates. And by the way, at that time, Variable rates ranged anywhere from 1.50% to 1.95% compared with the best discounted 5 yr fixed rate of 3.89%…..! Anyone seeing a pattern here? (Some stats to remember…Mortgage defaults have been under 0.50% for over 15 years are currently at around 0.33%… this is at or near record lows!!… so where’s the problem??)

This is also when the BIG SIX BANK’S inflated, and unfair mortgage penalty calculation came to light. The lower rates became, the higher mortgage penalties climbed… $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 in mortgage prepayment penalty charges were popping up in mortgage blogs and news sites. Even the media had to jump in and cover some of this… And when Canadians needed a break in their mortgage payments, they were left out in the cold. These inflated penalties made it impossible to get out of their higher Fixed rate mortgages without paying an enormous penalty. Continue reading “Fed govt, BIG SIX BANK’s pushed us into Fixed rates!…part 2 of 2.”