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502013
Chris Simpson
Mortgage Broker
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109 - 3550 Saanich Road, Victoria, British Columbia
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BLOG / NEWS Updates
What is your Best Rate?
Recently I had some good friends of mine ask what the going interest rates are and more
importantly what is the best rate could I get them. Obviously not an uncommon question in my
line of work but this is no longer a quick and easy question. Last year if I wanted to be a little
cheeky (depending on who was asking) Id respond with a question of my own, like whats your
credit score? 9 times out of 10 there would be an awkward pause and blank stare followed by a
does it matter? Yes, yes it does. Once we got through that portion of the conversation Id then
begin talking about the rates. But that was 2016, and now that it is 2017 the rate game has
become a little like the did you see what Trump just tweeted conversation that is making people
yearn for the days of old.
Last October Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced significant changes* to our industry
which included new securitization rules and qualification requirements. These changes forced
lenders to adjust their pricing models to account for the increased costs of doing business and
those costs have been handed down to you the borrower. Prior to that announcement I had a
nice simple rate sheet that told me what every lender was offering. Now my rate sheet could
easily be 5 pages long and it would still be incomplete. Credit scores were once the driving
factor in your interest rate, now Mortgage Brokers should be asking you a laundry list of
questions to determine what mortgage is best suited for you long before they tell you the best
rates.
Here are some questions you need to be prepared to answer before you can start asking about
the interest rate. Is this a purchase or refinance? What is the loan to value percentage? What
term and amortization would you like? What type of property are you wanting to
mortgage? Can you prove your income? Can you stomach the idea of a very large penalty if you
need to break the term? These are just a few of the questions your Mortgage Broker needs to
ask when you to properly evaluate what the best rate for you is.
Do you want to know where you fit into the new world of mortgage rates? Please give me a call
or send me an email and I would be happy to help.
*Industry Changes: Department of Finance and Article from the Globe and Mail
Mortgage Tip: Do you know what is on your credit report? Check your report for free.
Scotiabank: Why Canada needs to focus on ways to encourage more home building
The recent run-up in housing prices, and the attendant worries about affordability and accessibility, have many stakeholders scrambling to find quick solutions. While understandable, those approaches are likely to have only minimal impacts on Canadas housing situation and its consequences for people looking for a reasonably priced place to live. Focusing on interest rate policy or macroprudential instruments, such as stricter mortgage stress tests, draws attention away from the underlying cause of the problem: the inability of supply to meet demand. Put simply, this country doesnt build enough housing. We should not be surprised by this. Canada has increased immigration dramatically in recent years to tremendous benefit to the economy, but we failed to pro-actively address the housing challenges the consequent population boom was sure to bring. Policy efforts must focus far more on anticipatory, collaborative, multistakeholder and very specific solutions to the housing situation rather than on the short-term and ultimately ineffective macroprudential Band-Aids applied in recent years. Scotiabank Economics is publishing research this week looking at the increase in Canadas housing stock relative to the increase in population over the past several years to get a sense of how effective we have been in creating new units. The numbers are not encouraging. One way to look at it is by using the ratio of new housing to population growth. By that measure, construction has been well below its historical average since mid-2017. That is perhaps not surprising, given that Canada has seen an immigration-fuelled population boom since 2015. In the three years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, population grew nearly twice as fast as new housing units were being built. That ratio improved somewhat with the COVID-related stall in immigration, but it is likely to reverse course once immigration returns to planned levels.
Dan Rees is group head, Canadian banking at the Bank of Nova Scotia. Jean-Franois Perrault is Scotiabanks chief economist
Two-thirds of Canadians were asset resilient in the year prior to the pandemic
Just over two-thirds (67.1%) of Canadians were asset resilient for at least three months in 2019, up from 63.6% in 1999.
Over these two decades, several factors contributed to the overall rate of asset resilience. For one thing, Canadians held more liquid assets at the end of the period. Median person-adjusted household liquid assets rose from $6,300 in 1999 to $10,700 in 2019. Canadians were also slightly older, on averagethe median age of Canadians increased from 36.4 years to 40.8 years. Family income has also been rising since 1999, and asset resilience is associated with higher income. The median person-adjusted, household after-tax income of Canadians increased by one-third (+34.9%), rising from $37,300 in 1999 to $50,300 in 2019, while the share of Canadians below the LIM-AT edged down from 12.4% to 12.1%.
source: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/210504/dq210504e-eng.htm
