New mortgage guidelines aimed at Canada’s sizzling real estate market might not be as ironclad as Finance Minister Mark Carney may have hoped. That’s because credit unions, which are provincially regulated, are not under the jurisdiction of the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI). This loophole may provide community credit unions with an important competitive advantage and borrowers … Read More
How To Save For Your Down Payment
According to a recent TD Canada Trust survey, nearly 60 percent of Canadians were disappointed in the size of their down payment. These findings aren’t all that surprising; in a world of record-setting consumer debt, slim savings and lacklustre investment returns, saving for a sizeable deposit can seem like an exercise in futility. And yet, the bigger your down payment, the less … Read More
Consumer Debt Hits A New High
A report released this morning by TransUnion shows that, despite repeated warnings, Canadians are back on the borrowing bandwagon, pushing consumer debt to a new record high. According to the report, the average Canadian’s non-mortgage debt hit $26,221 in the second quarter of 2012, up $192 from the previous quarter. This is the highest per person debt level since the … Read More
RBC Increases Rates And the Argument for Smaller Lenders
The Royal Bank is the first of Canada’s big banks to hike rates, increasing two of its mortgages by one-fifth of a point each this morning. RBC’s posted rate for a three-year, fixed-rate mortgage has increased 0.2 percentage points to 4.05 while their special-offer rate for a five-year closed mortgage rose to 3.69 percent. RBC is the first major commercial … Read More
HELOC Lending Limits On The Way?
Rumour has it that lending limits for home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) could be slashed come the end of this month. These moves, which relate to the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions’ new mortgage underwriting guidelines, will limit federally regulated lenders to limit all new HELOCs to 65 percent loan-to-value, down from the current rate of 80 … Read More