By Gail Vaz-Oxlade Did you ever see the CBC Marketplace episode where they asked 100 Canadians to check their credit reports for errors? Forty of those people found problems. Not exactly confidence-building when it comes to what those reports are saying about you, right? So when was the last time you checked your credit report? Don’t […]

5 Simple reasons why using a mortgage broker instead of a bank when getting a mortgage is a better choice 1. Because using a mortgage broker is an effective way of getting the best mortgage package without having to commit hours of your time searching and browsing online.  Also avoiding mutiple credit checks by different […]

I have attached a link below on a great article giving some examples of how the traditional bank penalties are much more costly than mortgage lender penalties.   http://canadamortgagenews.ca/2012/04/24/4k-penalty-on-a-109k-mortgage-8k-penalty-on-a-213k-mortgage/   In the past there was not much information on penalties, and people would be stuck with whatever the bank says or does.  With this new […]

Anil GigaSpecial to Financial Post Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney has been warning about the high level of consumer debt in Canada since 2011, and this advice has been largely ignored. Canadian consumers’ debt levels today are by any measure higher than they have ever been. The irony is that we are on the […]

By Jamie Farshchi With the maximum loan to value for refis reduced to 80 per cent,  banks may be adding insult to injury with more conservative appraisals for refis, argue brokers. According to Andre Semeniuk, a mortgage planner with Mortgage Architects, appraisers are now more conservative when it comes to refinancing than purchasing.   “The […]

BILL CURRY, GRANT ROBERTSON AND TARA PERKINSThe Globe and Mail The federal government is moving again to tighten the rules on mortgage lending in Canada amid growing concerns that the housing market is overheated and household debt levels are climbing to perilous levels. The country’s biggest banks were caught off guard on Wednesday night as […]

Martin PelletierFinancial Post Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney has been warning consumers for some time not to get too comfortable, since higher interest rates are on the horizon. We think this is more of a scare tactic to get overleveraged consumers to rein in their borrowing levels, because Canada is certainly not on solid […]

By Les WhittingtonMoneyville OTTAWA—Despite repeated Bank of Canada warnings of higher interest rates to come, Canadians are unlikely to see an uptick in borrowing costs for many months as the world business climate weakens. With Europe in financial turmoil, central bank governor Mark Carney is almost certain Tuesday to keep the bank’s trend-setting overnight rate […]

The Canadian Press Jun 14, 2012Financial Post OTTAWA — Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. raised its expectations for housing starts this year on Thursday, but said it expects both new and existing home markets to moderate in coming months after getting off to a strong start early in the year. The agency’s second-quarter housing market […]

Sunny Freeman, The Canadian PressFinancial Post TORONTO — Canadian housing market conditions have cooled slightly, with prices down nearly 2% in the first-quarter, but the country continues to outperform other developed nations, according to a new Scotiabank real estate report. The latest Scotiabank Global Real Estate Trends report released Wednesday found that the inflation-adjusted national […]