You need a new mortgage and after contemplating whether to go fixed or variable, you have chosen that a variable rate mortgage is right for you. But are all variable rate mortgages equal? Definitely not! In fact, you could be comparing two seemingly similar variable rate mortgages, yet one will be more costly than the [...]
5 year fixed mortgage rates have now risen by approximately 1.5% since late 2016. Rising rates mean higher payments, and higher payments mean that you will qualify for a lower mortgage amount. On top of higher rates, everyone now has to pass a ‘stress test’, which lowers your qualified amount further. The ‘stress test' means that [...]
For anyone with active positions in the stock market, I feel your pain along with you. With such precipitous drops over a period of only a few days, it definitely stings. So if there were such large drops to the major stock indexes, will we see major drops to mortgage rates? The short and quick [...]
What most people will do when it comes to renewing their mortgage is simply sign the renewal documents and send them back to their bank, without so much as doing a Google search to see if what they are being quoted is accurate. While this might be unbelievable to some, this is how many people [...]
Following a period of almost eight years without an increase to prime rate, the increase we saw back in July was the fourth in the past year. But is the Bank of Canada finished with their rate increasing rampage? Not quite. The next rate announcement will be coming on September 5th, where we can almost [...]
While it’s great to have a high credit score, there is a lot more to your credit bureau than just score. It’s possible that you could have a high score, yet still be declined for a mortgage based on credit. But why? The purpose of the credit bureau is to show the mortgage lender that [...]
As of Monday, May 14th, 2018, the minimum qualifying rate for mortgages increased from 5.14% to 5.34%. This will decrease the total mortgage amount you will qualify for. This started late April when TD announced they would be increasing their 5 year fixed posted rate to 5.59%... leading the mortgage industry with the highest posted [...]
I have people coming to me regularly saying they would like to add a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) to their mortgage. The first thing I’ll usually ask is the reason for needing it. While having it’s advantages, adding a HELOC to your mortgage also has it’s disadvantages as well. This is why it [...]
Hard to believe it's now 2018, and the new mortgage rules are now in place. So what does this mean for the housing industry? Anyone with a down payment of 20% or greater will now qualify for around 20% less than that they would have qualified for in previous years. When you add this on top [...]
There has been a lot of hype about the new mortgage regulations that are set to take effect on January 1st, 2018. Just about every new inquiry I have been getting lately results in a question about how the new mortgage regulations will affect them. If you have a home purchase closing, and you entered [...]
