The CHIP Reverse Mortgage as your Debt Consolidation Solution Canadians are choosing to carry more and more debt For many Canadians, borrowing money has become an increasingly necessary means of keeping up with ongoing expenses. Whether it’s a traditional mortgage to get into a home, a line of credit to cover a major purchase or […]

Canadian Home Sales and New Listings Recover One-Third of Pandemic Loss in May Record Gains in Canadian Home Sales and Listings in May There was good news today on the housing front. Home sales surged by a record 56.9% in May from April’s unprecedented collapse. Data released this morning from the Canadian Real Estate Association […]

Governor Macklem Affirms No Negative Interest Rates First Formal Remarks By Tiff Macklem, Bank of Canada Governor There were no surprises this morning from Governor Macklem’s virtual presentation to the Canadian Clubs of Canada. His opening written statement was quite brief and it was followed up with a Q and A. Here are the key points […]

The Math on Mortgage Deferrals The Real Costs. The Facts. The Myths. There are opinions and articles circulating that say taking the 6 month mortgage deferral option could result in your payments increasing by $800 a month at the end of the deferral period. This is just not so. You’ve probably also heard that lenders […]

5 Mistakes First Time Home Buyers Make Buying a home might just be the biggest purchase of your life—it’s important to do your homework before jumping in! We have outlined the 5 mistakes First Time Home Buyers commonly make, and how you can avoid them and look like a Home Buying Champ. 1. Shopping Outside […]

Morneau Eases Stress Test On Insured Mortgages Minister Morneau Announces New Benchmark Rate for Qualifying For Insured Mortgages The new qualifying rate will be the mortgage contract rate or a newly created benchmark very close to it plus 200 basis points, in either case. The News Release from the Department of Finance Canada states, “the […]

Fed Emergency 50 BP Rate Cut The Fed Brings Out The Big Guns In a remarkable show of force, the US Federal Reserve jumped the gun on its regularly scheduled meeting on March 18 and cut the target overnight fed funds rate by a full 50 basis points (bps) to 1%-to-1.25%. This now stands well below […]

Raise your credit score in 3 months While people often think of mortgage brokers when they are first time home buyers, we can help people in a variety of different ways. Recently Garrett LaBarre of Calvert Home Mortgages in Calgary shared a success story with brokers. He had a client referred to him by a […]

Great read from my colleague Gursch…. if you are a 1st time buyer this will uber important please check it out RRSP – Use home buyers’ plan (HBP) more than once Under the home buyers’ plan, a participant and his or her spouse or common- law partner is allowed to withdraw up to $25,000 from […]

RRSP Contributions: To Preserve or Not To Preserve? That is the question… A recent BMO study shows that the number of Canadians withdrawing money from their RRSP increased to 38% from 34% last year, and on average these Canadians are taking out larger sums of money. The government requires RRSPs to be converted to a […]