Home Prices Continue to Rise
According to the Teranet Home Price Index this month, Hamilton home prices are up 8.4% and Toronto is up 7.6%. In our humble opinion, the increase is fuelled by our record low interest rates combined with lower than average inventory of available homes.
New Mortgage Rules Coming Next Week…
In recent years, there have been many changes to the mortgage rules. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has implemented the various changes to prevent a housing bubble (which is just fancy-speak for unsustainable growth and a subsequent crash). The first changes came in 2008, when the federal government limited the maximum amortization period for mortgages to […]
Record Low Mortgage Rates
The lowest mortgage rate in Canadian history could continue to fuel record-breaking housing sales in Canada. The Bank of Montreal and the TD were the first to announce a drop in their five-year, fixed-rate mortgage by 0.5% to 2.99%. This mortgage rate is only available until Jan. 25 from BMO and until February 29th from TD, and […]
Understanding The Language of Mortgages
Here are the meaning of some common terms used when talking about mortgages… Conventional Mortgage – a mortgage with a down payment of 20% or more of the value of the property Conventional High Ratio – a mortgage where the down payment is less than 20%of the value of the property Amortization – the period […]
INTEREST RATES UPWARD CLIMB
The Bank of Canada has begun to tighten their monetary policy with a 25 basis point hike, increasing the overnight target rate to 0.50%. This move was expected due to the strong Q1/2010 GDP performance. The text of the announcement highlighted Canada’s strong performance, noting the robust first quarter growth and employment growth resumption. It […]
New Lending Rules Will Affect Home Purchases
Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced three new rule changes connected to government-backed insured mortgages. These changes have been anticipated and many lenders had already put them into practice. They become mandatory on April 19th, 2010. The first relates to higher qualification rates. Since interest rates are at an all time low, there’s been some […]