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The First-Time Home Buyer Incentive helps qualified first-time homebuyers reduce their monthly mortgage payments without adding to their financial burdens. The First-Time Home Buyer Incentive is a shared-equity mortgage with the Government of Canada. It offers: 5% or 10% for a first-time buyers purchase of a newly constructed home 5% for a first-time buyers purchase of a resale (existing) home 5% for a first-time buyers purchase of a new or resale mobile/manufactured home The Incentives shared-equity mortgage is one where the government has a shared investment in the home. As a result, the government shares in both the upside and downside of the property value. By obtaining the Incentive, the borrower may not have to save as much of a down payment to be able to afford the payments associated with the mortgage. The effect of the larger down payment is a smaller mortgage, and, ultimately, lower monthly costs. The homebuyer will still have to repay the Incentive based on the propertys fair market value at the time of repayment. If a homebuyer received a 5% Incentive, they would repay 5% of the homes value at repayment. If a homebuyer received a 10% Incentive, they would repay 10% of the homes value at repayment. The homebuyer must repay the Incentive after 25 years, or when the property is sold, whichever comes first. The homebuyer can also repay the Incentive in full any time before, without a pre-payment penalty. Ask me for more information.

In July, the consumer price index climbed 0.5% (not seasonally adjusted), three ticks higher than the median economist forecast. The rise left the year-on-year measure unchanged at 2.0%. In seasonally adjusted terms, the CPI was up 0.4% in the month on increases in recreation (+0.9%), transportation (+0.6%), and food (+0.3%), among others. The Bank of Canadas preferred core measures on a year-on-year basis pegged in as follows: 2.1% for the CPI-trim, 2.1% for the CPI- median, and 1.9% for the CPI-common. The average of the three measures remained in line with the BoCs midpoint target of 2.0%. It is worth noting that the momentum has been building of late. Our in-house replication of the CPI-trim and the CPI-median for the three months to July reached 2.5% and 2.6%, respectively, on an annualized basis. Whereas the Fed can point to soft annual inflation figures to justify rate cuts, the BoC is faced with a very different situation. Whats more, in a context marked by a tight labour market and a weak Canadian dollar, we cannot rule out stronger inflation down the road.