Over the last week the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) and Toronto Real Estate Board released their monthly real estate market reports. Here is a summary of their findings.
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Friday Mortgage Round Up: May 11th, 2012
Tag Archives: HELOC
Friday Mortgage Round Up: February 17th, 2012
After the CMHC announcement hit headlines last week, a few lenders changed their guidelines for promotional rates offered. The lenders revealed that the promo rates are no longer offered for conventional mortgages anymore and they are only looking at high-ratio deals. CMHC claimed that their cap wouldn’t affect qualified home buyers nor would it affect the cost of buying a house. Ahemm… the last time I checked, putting LESS money down on a home to qualify for a lower promotional rate, increases the interest payments made over the life of your mortgage, thereby directly affecting the cost of buying a house!
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The New Mortgage Rules that Actually Made a Difference
Less Canadians are treating their homes like an ATM. The report by the Canadian Housing and Mortgage Corporation (CMHC) says, since new stricter rules were brought in last year by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, refinancing activity of insured mortgages has dropped by 40%.
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The Aftermath of the New Mortgage Rules
In January of this year, Jim Flaherty, Canada’s minister of finance, announced that new mortgage and HELOC restrictions were to come into effect in March, 2011. The purpose of the new restrictions was to help curb consumer debt, which was said to be rising at an alarming rate. So have Flaherty’s restrictions brought the stability he sought, or are consumers only sinking deeper into debt?
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Budgeting for the warm weather
An important piece to getting your financial house in order this season is setting a new spring budget. Here are five steps to help get you started:
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