An important first step in the home-buying process is being pre-approved for a mortgage. This affords you the luxury of knowing your purchasing power and the calm that you have inched closer to completing the mortgage application. You can be pre-approved in as little as an hour. As long as you have all of the documentation necessary for this endeavour and you have shopped around for the best rates, it is not a tiring ordeal. That said, if you are in the market for a new home and have already... [read more]

“Bank Regulator OSFI warns more borrowers could struggle to make payments”. Even though the BoC did drop their policy interest rate to 4.75% last week, Canada’s top bank regulators still says most Canadians are not out of the woods. OSFI says 76% of mortgages outstanding as of February 2024 will be coming up for renewal by the end of 2026. So...in the next 2 years...will we see the BoC continue to drop their policy rate? Will OSFI starts making critical moves with their... [read more]

Is change needed in mortgage qualifications? Current tests require that a new borrower be able to afford a payment that is two percentage points above the actual contracted interest rate.   The federal governments regulations about residential mortgages have become unbalanced, and the rules are causing more harm than good.   One significant concern is about the mortgage stress test that are required by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions... [read more]

The downpayment on a home can start as low as 5% of the purchase price.  Less than 20% downpayment must be insured which is an additional cost to the borrower.  Regardless of the downpayment amount, those funds are under the scrutiny of anti-money laundering laws. That could mean a lot of paper work for borrowers seeking a mortgage. Funds can be gifted or partially borrowed on credit, but that's a specific program that has its own process and requirements.  Most lenders do... [read more]

Should you break your variable-rate mortgage? We spoke to mortgage professional Deepak Bansal from Dominion Lending Centre about this. He strongly suggests that everyone get a “mortgage checkup” to evaluate the best options that compliment your financial wellbeing.  In the Globe & Mail article below dated Jan 27, 2023, Robert McLister (Interest rate analyst, mortgage strategist and editor of MortgageLogic.news) share his thoughts and ideas on... [read more]