National Mortgage Related News Archive

• Home reno tax credit boosts retailers
  Mar 19, 2010 — A last minute rush to qualify for the Home Renovation Tax Credit pushed retail sales up 0.7% in January, according to government data released Friday. Home improvement stores were the largest contributor to the month's $35.7 billion in retail sales, Statistics Canada said. The deadline to qualify for a maximum HRTC rebate of $1,350 was Feb. 1. The popular temporary program was part of the federal government's Economic Action Plan designed to boost spending.
  Source: News Staff, Canoe Money
  
• CIBC wins dismissal of subprime suit
  Mar 18, 2010 — Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce may have lost billions of dollars from its exposure to U.S. subprime mortgage securities, but that does not mean its actions were fraudulent, an American judge has found.
  Source: Tara Perkins, Report on Business
  
• Five reasons to steer clear of U.S. bank stocks
  Mar 18, 2010 — The largest U.S. banks have had a strong run of late with the SPDR KBW Bank ETF (KBE-N25.74-0.28-1.08%) roughly doubling in the past year. We've pulled together five reasons to be cautious about their prospects from here. A second wave of foreclosures, the end of government stimulus and contagion from Europe are among the reasons to be cautious.
  Source: Dan Freed, The Globe and Mail
  
• Housing Trust Borrowing Costs Decline at Sale
  Mar 18, 2010 — Canada Housing Trust, the financing arm of the nation's housing agency, sold C$6 billion ($5.9 billion) in mortgage bonds at the lowest relative yields since before the credit markets seized up in 2007.
  Source: Chris Fournier, Bloomberg
  
• Tracking Vancouver's Real Estate Bubble
  Mar 18, 2010 — In the spring of 2008, I was quoted in the Vancouver media as predicting that the city's real estate bubble was going to burst after the Olympics. So, two years on, was my prediction any better or worse than those for Olympic medals?
  Source: Steve Pomeroy, The Mark
  
• Interest in home ownership skyrockets in Toronto
  Mar 18, 2010 — Toronto's condo craze could continue for a while if the results of the recent RBC Homeownership Survey prove to be accurate. The number of people intending to buy a new home has increased over last year, while the number of people that see homeownership as a good investment has gone through the roof (please pardon the pun).
  Source: Stephen Dupuis, Metro News
  
• Why Canada Avoided a Mortgage Meltdown
  Mar 18, 2010 — Canada makes a useful comparison for the U.S. Both countries are rich, advanced, stable, have sophisticated financial systems and pioneer histories, and stretch from Atlantic to Pacific. But Canada has no housing GSEs. Mortgage interest is not tax deductible. It does not have 30-year fixed rate, freely prepayable mortgage loans. Mortgage lending is more conservative and much more creditor-friendly.
  Source: Alex Pollock, Wall Street Journal
  
• New rules leave some customers confused
  Mar 17, 2010 — "There are a lot of rules(governing mortgages) that changed. But they weren't communicated very well," says Robert McLister, the editor of Vancouver based Canadian Mortgage Trends. Under the new rules, all buyers requiring mortgage insurance will have to meet the "ability to pay" for a higher, more expensive five-year fixed-rate mortgage even if they choose a mortgage with a lower interest rate and a shorter term.
  Source: James Pasternak, Montreal Gazette
  
• U.S. home loan applications slid last week
  Mar 17, 2010 — Applications for U.S. home loans slid last week despite the lowest mortgage rates in more than three months, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday, suggesting a long haul before housing recovers.
  Source: Reuters, Canoe Money
  
• Homes sales get warm weather boost
  Mar 17, 2010 — Ontario - Record breaking warm temperatures in March helped bring out buyers during the first two weeks of the month. The Toronto Real Estate Board reported 4,353 existing home sales today, up 70 per cent from the same time last year, when the market was in recession.
  Source: Tony Wong, Your Home
  
• Rising oil prices boost Toronto stock market
  Mar 17, 2010 — Canada's benchmark stock index got a boost Wednesday from rising oil prices and better-than-expected wholesale trade numbers. The Canadian dollar traded briefly at 99 cents US on Wednesday following the U.S. Federal Reserve announcement Tuesday that interest rates would remain at their current record lows for an extended period. At midday the loonie was at 98.88 cents US.
  Source: Financial Post, CBC News
  
• Frantic housing market ready for calm
  Mar 16, 2010 — After a historic runup in prices, the Canadian resale housing market is set to cool down as a wave of new listings hits the market, providing badly needed inventory for hungry buyers.
  Source: Steve Ladurantaye, The Globe and Mail
  
• Trouble Making Your Mortgage Payments?
  Mar 16, 2010 — For most Canadians, our home is our most important investment. But owning a home also comes with a great deal of responsibility. When unforeseen circumstances impact your ability to meet your mortgage payments, it's important to take quick action and contact your lender. With early intervention, your lender can help you find a solution to your financial difficulties.
  Source: Henry Unger, My Steinbach
  
• Understanding Real Estate Fraud
  Mar 16, 2010 — A home is the largest purchase most Canadians will make in their lifetime. In many cases, it takes years of saving to build a down-payment for the home and many years more to pay off the mortgage. Because of the high value attached to homes, they are also a key target for fraud and Canadians have the potential to lose big-time if they don't know how to protect themselves.
  Source: LawPRO, TitlePLUS, CNW
  
• Mortgage refinancing penalties prompt backlash
  Mar 16, 2010 — Low interest rates may have made mortgages cheaper. They have also made Douglas Melville a much busier man. His office, which handles complaints from consumers about their banks, has seen a spike in the number of new cases it is investigating. In the quarter that ended Jan. 31, the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments, or OBSI, opened 301 new files - nearly twice the number in the same quarter last year and almost three times as many as in 2008.
  Source: Tara Perkins, The Globe and Mail
  
• Some mortgages come with spending money
  Mar 16, 2010 — The arrival of spring signals summer moving season and the return of even more heated competition between banks for consumer mortgages. Case in point: the current flogging of cash-back mortgages. Cash-back mortgages give consumers a percentage of their mortgage in cash to spend as they please.
  Source: Canwest News Service, Kelowna.com
  
• Flaherty not flinching as loonie nears parity
  Mar 16, 2010 — There was a time not so long ago when a loonie edging closer to parity with the U.S. dollar would trigger hoots of outrage from business leaders and federal opposition ranks alike, demanding the Canadian government do something to tame the bird or face ballooning welfare rolls and corporate bankruptcies. Just last summer, Mr. Flaherty himself expressed worry about the loonie's quick rise.
  Source: Nicolas Van Praet, Financial Post
  
• Homeownership gets more costly
  Mar 15, 2010 — Homeownership costs in Canada grew in all housing segments late last year, driven by rising home prices. Costs rose in the fourth quarter of 2009 and will likely continue to climb, Royal Bank of Canada's quarterly housing report said Monday. Homeownership costs will keep rising as strong demand and a limited supply of homes put pressure on prices, the bank cautioned.
  Source: Tavia Grant, The Globe and Mail
  
• Real estate market blows off some steam
  Mar 15, 2010 — Canadian existing home sales edged lower last month, as a cooling Vancouver resale market offset red-hot activity in Toronto, the Canadian Real Estate Association said Monday. Home sales through the association's Multiple Listing Service fell 1.5% in February to a seasonally adjusted 42,799. Activity declined mostly in Vancouver, but this was offset by an equally large gain in Toronto.
  Source: News Staff, Canoe Money
  
• Don't just fall into a debt hole
  Mar 15, 2010 — If you want to make Gail Vaz-Oxlade's blood boil, just mention debt. The host of the financial makeover television show Til Debt Do Us Part and author of the Canadian bestseller Debt-Free Forever believes easy access to cheap credit, along with a reluctance to take control of their financial situations, are most people's downfall in the IOU department.
  Source: Roma Luciw, Globe Investor
  
• Can a house be a retirement plan?
  Mar 12, 2010 — I am often asked the same question advisors are: Should I invest in my home, pay off my mortgage or should I save and invest for retirement? Let me say right up front that comparing the investment value of a home with the investment value of financial investments is a complicated, tedious and often inconclusive process and I have deliberately left the tax considerations to the tax experts. Regardless, I think it is useful to review some of the key issues.
  Source: Peter Drake, Advisor.ca
  
• The Flaherty effect
  Mar 12, 2010 — Many of us have been enjoying supremely attractive interest rates on mortgages. However, with rates having been at historic lows for quite some time and with the economy heating up, the only direction rates will go from here is up. The finance minister wants to ensure borrowers are in good financial shape to withstand rate hikes, which are expected to hit this summer.
  Source: Helen Morris, National Post
  
• Xceed Mortgage swings to Q1 net loss
  Mar 11, 2010 — Insured mortgages provider Xceed Mortgage Corp. swung to a first-quarter loss, hurt by negative fair-value adjustments related to its discontinued business line of uninsured mortgages. The company posted a net loss of $11.8 million, or 42 cents a share, compared with a profit of $3.3 million, or 12 cents a share, in the year ago period.
  Source: Reuters, Financial Post
  
• Bank of Canada 75 Years Later
  Mar 11, 2010 — Seventy-five years ago today the newly constituted Bank of Canada took over responsibility for Canada's currency. It was supposed to have done so 10 days earlier but British American Bank Note Co. was late with its initial delivery of cash. Since 1935, when the Bank came into being, prices in Canada have risen 16-fold. What costs $100 now would have cost just $6.25 then. It makes you wish the banknotes had been delayed a lot longer.
  Source: William Watson, National Post
  
• Why buying a house is a bad investment
  Mar 11, 2010 — More than two centuries ago, the economist Adam Smith produced his landmark tome, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, in which he wrote, "a dwelling-house, as such, contributes nothing to the revenue of its inhabitant." The father of modern economics placed housing in the same category as clothing and furniture - useful consumer goods that do not generate wealth. For the homeowner, a house is a "part of his expense, and not of his revenue." Were Smith alive to make such a statement today, he would no doubt be regarded as a heretic.
  Source: Joe Castaldo, Canadian Business
  
• New home prices climb again in Jan
  Mar 11, 2010 — New home prices in Canada kept climbing in January, rising 0.4 percent from the previous month as expected, according to Statistics Canada on Thursday. The Canadian housing market slumped during the recession last year but never underwent a U.S. style collapse. Strong sales and price gains in recent months have led to worries of a made in Canada housing bubble and prompted the government to tighten mortgage lending rules in February.
  Source: Louise Egan, Reuters
  
• Choose mortgage words carefully
  Mar 10, 2010 — When it comes to your mortgage contract, watch your language. Most consumers only look at their mortgage contract, one of the most important documents they will ever sign, just before they are about to close on a house, says Toronto real-estate lawyer Steve Brett.
  Source: Gary Marr, Financial Post
  
• Canada's profitable banks set sights on growth
  Mar 10, 2010 — Canada's banks have moved out of crisis mode and are shifting their attention to finding new growth in a tough economy. "We are emerging [from the crisis] in a stronger position than when we went in," Rick Waugh, Scotiabank's chief executive officer, said in a conference call after his bank reported record quarterly revenues and a 17-per-cent jump in profits.
  Source: Tara Perkins, The Globe and Mail
  
• Prepare early to conquer your mortgage later
  Mar 10, 2010 — Your first mortgage can be a scary thing, but if you plan ahead and stay committed, you can conquer it. "I like to have clients pretend they're making a mortgage payment before they buy. Put away $1,000 or $1,500 every month for three to six months, that way you either collect a larger down payment or more money for incidentals while seeing if you can handle a mortgage," recommends Gerri Vaughan, a mortgage specialist with Invis in Edmonton.
  Source: Rafael Brusilow, Metro News
  
• Refinancing tempting at these rates
  Mar 09, 2010 — After months of mild fluctuations in fixed-rate mortgage rates, pressure seems to be building for an increase. The five-year Government of Canada bond yield leaped 0.27 of a percentage point last week, and rose a little bit more yesterday. Where the five-year Canada bond yield goes, five-year mortgage rates generally follow.
  Source: Rob Carrick, The Globe and Mail