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
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
Understanding Amortization
A shorter amortization period can help you pay off your mortgage faster and save you money. Obvious? Perhaps. So why are more and more people choosing to stretch their amortization as long as possible? The recent changes to Canadian mortgage regulations that limit amortization periods to 25-years have caused a bit of tension across the country as families scramble to … Read More
Is a One-Year Fixed Rate Mortgage Right For You?
Rates have nowhere to go but up. Or at least, that’s what everyone keeps telling us. Banks, economists, mortgage brokers, even Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is insisting that interest rates will start to climb later this year. And yet, they keep going down. The mortgage establishment continues to drop interest rates, pushing long-term fixed mortgage rates like they’re going out … Read More