CANADIAN MORTGAGE VIEWS

Is It Time To Refinance? When people take on a mortgage the majority opt for a 5 year one usually because they intend to stay in the residence and they know their payments for the next 5 years. However life sometimes throws a curveball at us and we have to make hard financial decisions. Perhaps an illness occurred or 1 person was laid off or a divorce occurs and suddenly you can't pay for anything in cash anymore and resort to using credit cards. As we well know credit cards companies love this because the amount of interest you are paying increases. Perhaps you took a 5 year mortgage out several years ago You now look at how you can lower your payments and because mortgage rates are at a historical low these days it makes sense to look at breaking your mortgage and taking on a new one at a lower rate.  Paying off credit cards at 20% + interest looks attractive when you can get a new mortgage under 4% these days. Before you do anything you need to know what it will cost to b

As the deadline for banks to disclose their penalty calculations draws closer, this topic of penalties will be more prevalent. As clients become more aware, will it be a new area of competition forcing lenders to change standard charge terms and all play on the same level field? Breaking your mortgage: Understanding the rules You can pay a high price to refinance a mortgage before maturity. Lenders will soon have to give more information on what to expect. By Ellen Roseman Mortgage rates are falling. You want to break your closed mortgage and get a new five-year loan at 2.99 per cent. Hold on. Take a deep breath. Talk to your lender first. Find out how much you will have to pay to get out of your mortgage early. The penalty could wipe out all your profit on the deal. Mortgage penalties come as a big surprise to borrowers who aren’t prepared for them. Banks are often unprepared as well, since the information is buried in the fine print of a mortgage contract. As a result,

A good explainatory article by Robert McLister of Canadian Mortgage Trends explaining the pros and cons of Bank of Montreal's just announced 5 year 2.99% rate: BMO Cranks Up the Heat Again BMO is dead-set on winning mind share among consumers. It's coming back to the market with two new deep-discount rate promos: A 5-year fixed at 2.99% (which starts Thursday, March 8, 2012) A 10-year fixed at 3.99% (which starts Sunday, March 11, 2012) Both of these specials are low-frills, meaning: A Lower Maximum Amortization: 25 years versus 30-40 years elsewhere Less Lump-sum Pre-payment Ability: 10% maximum per year (i.e., 1/2 of the 20% that BMO normally allows) A Smaller Payment Increase Option: Up to 10%, once per year (again, 1/2 of the 20% that BMO normally allows) A Locked Term: The Low-rate Mortgage is fully closed unless you sell the property, refinance (with BMO only), or early renew into another BMO mortgage. In other words, unle

Code of Conduct for Federally Regulated Financial Institutions Mortgage Prepayment Information Purpose The purpose of the Code is to ensure that federally regulated financial institutions ("lenders") provide enhanced information in respect of credit agreements secured by mortgages where a prepayment charge could apply ("mortgages") to assist borrowers in making decisions about prepayment of their mortgage. Lenders currently provide substantial amounts of information relevant to mortgage prepayments to consumers in accordance with the requirements in the applicable federal regulations, including but not limited to federal cost of borrowing disclosure regulations and credit business practices regulations. The information that will be provided under this Code is in addition to existing information provided by lenders to borrowers. Application and Implementation Lenders will implement the policy elements of the Code with respect to new mortgages no later than six (

Good article from the Globe and Mail: Canada’s housing market has two good years ahead of it yet, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. said Monday, with low interest rates and a “moderately” expanding economy keeping price corrections at bay. The Crown corporation – which insures Canadian mortgages – has had a consistently rosier view of the market than many private sector forecasters. Canadian banks have recently issued reports probing the consequences of cheap money, and trying to predict whether there is a bubble in prices that will eventually pop and cause prices to crash. They are particularly concerned about Vancouver and Toronto, where some have predicted price corrections of up to 10 per cent because of overbuilding in the condo market. But CMHC said Monday Canadian markets would “remain steady in 2012 and 2013. “With the Canadian economy set to expand at a moderate pace and mortgage rates expected to remain low, activity levels in 2012 in both new home construction and sales

The Bank of Canada did as expected yesterday and announced it is increasing the target for the overnight rate by 0.25% to 0.75%. There was some debate earlier in the month whether the central bank would actually continue increasing interest rates, but after the strong job report that was released mid-month announcing that a record number of jobs were created in June, it became apparent that Bank Governor Mark Carney, now had strong justification to increase rates again. Some key items in the release included: Globally Global economic recovery is proceeding but is not yet self-sustaining Greater emphasis on balance sheet repair by households, banks, and governments around the world is expected to reduce global growth then the Bank originally believed back in April The response to the European debt crisis, or Greece’s debt crisis, has reduced the risk of it blowing out of proportion, but it will slow down global growth US consumer demand is increasing but is still not driving growth In C