Mortgage activity fell more than many people thought last year. New data from CMHC shows a 9% drop in the number of consumers getting new mortgages in 2017, among the metro areas it surveyed. Stricter mortgage rules, higher mortgage rates and higher home prices were some of the likely causes. Of particular interest was the drop in refinances. The number of...

BMO is now luring 5-year fixed borrowers with 1% cash back. If you get a $400,000 five-year BMO mortgage, that’s $4k in your pocket. In fact, the bank will rebate up to $30,000 if you qualify and your mortgage is big enough. The catch: you need to pay the mortgage from a BMO chequing account. If you don’t have one,...

Home equity line of credit (HELOC) balances are growing more than twice as fast as mortgages, shows a new report by CMHC. That will certainly raise more eyebrows in Ottawa. The government has been closely surveilling HELOC risk for a few years now. Their concern: homeowners are relying too much on HELOCs, taking on debt that’ll slow their consumption in the future...

Oh the lengths people will go to squeeze themselves into a new property. That includes putting their home, or at least part of it, on their credit card. Yep, believe it or not, some lenders are more than happy to let you borrow your down payment off a credit card. And government-backed default insurers support it. That’s despite Ottawa outlawing...

Two-thirds of consumers expect interest rates to rise in the next 12 months, according to a new report from Mortgage Professionals Canada. Only a measly 2% expect rates to fall. But that’s not as surprising as it seems. There is a built-in bias towards higher rates and there has been for years. “Through the entire history of this question, Canadians...

Roughly 1 in 6 Canadians work for themselves and CMHC wants to help them get a mortgage. Most notably, the nation’s largest default insurer is allowing lenders more flexibility when approving borrowers with less than two years of self-employment income. If you’re in business for yourself and getting a default-insured mortgage, CMHC has announced the following changes that may help...

The “neutral rate” has taken on a life of its own. The Bank of Canada is talking about it, analysts are talking about it, the media is talking about it and everyday mortgagors are talking about it. Millions of Canadians, us included, use it as reference when trying to estimate how high rates might go. But the neutral rate is...

The variable-rate market just got a shade more interesting. TD has announced that, effective tomorrow, its 5-year variable rate drops from 2.90% to 2.75%. That’s equivalent to TD mortgage prime minus 1.10%. (In case anyone forgot, TD’s mortgage prime is 15 basis points higher than other banks’ prime rates.) “Canada’s housing market continues to fluctuate, and rates continue to rise,”...

If low rates are a yard party, the Bank of Canada has just turned up the lawn sprinklers. Here’s a rundown of what they just did: Rate Decision: They increased the overnight rate 25 bps Prime Rate: Should jump to 3.70% this week Market Rate Outlook: 2+ more hikes by year-end 2019 BoC GDP Outlook: “Average growth of close to 2% over 2018-2020″...

Despite higher rates, a healthy slice of our population is staying open minded to variable mortgage rates. A CIBC poll today finds that: 72% of Canadians expect rising interest rates over the next 12 months (26% think they’ll stay the same) An overwhelming 83% of Canadians favour “predictability and stability over risk” when it comes to their finances (unsurprisingly) 77%...