Canada's Mortgage Rules Could Leave Millennials Hanging, Study Says + MORE Oct 10th

In our April 2016 issue of MoneySense, we introduced you to Sammu and Mandy Dhaliwall, a young married couple with three kids from Brampton, Ont. They are trying to juggle RRSPs, TFSAs, paying down their $350,000 mortgage as well as their $90,000 home equity line of credit.  Throughout the year we gave them a financial challenge every four weeks to help them get their finances in tip top shape. Make sure to follow along! For their latest challenge, we asked them to read Moolala by Bruce Sellery and to write about three money lessons they learned from the book. Here’s what they had to say. 
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Both Mandy and I found Moolala by Bruce Sellery—along with its accompanying exercises—an interesting read on how to manage money more effectively. Both of us had already gone through similar money exercises before but these served as good refreshers…

Mortgage-services business unable to update financials to public reporting standards in time for planned fall launch

Many say Ottawa’s moves to cool housing market forcing them to hike rates

OTTAWA – A report by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says home sales in Vancouver were already slowing before the plunge in recent months in the wake of a new tax on foreign buyers.
In its housing market insight report into the preliminary impact of the foreign buyers tax, CMHC said Thursday it’s too early to determine the long-term impact of the decision.
The housing agency says the drop in sales in August and September continued an already established trend, particularly at the higher end of the price range.
Robyn Adamache, CMHC’s principal market analyst for Vancouver, said foreign buyer activity is one of many factors in Vancouver.
“Equally important are housing and land supply constraints as well as the economic and demographic fundamentals that drive housing demand,” Adamache said in the report.
“Sales and prices had already started to dip before the introduction of the foreign buyers tax, so it basically underlined existing trends in the resale market.”
The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver reported earlier this week that September home sales fell 32…

Canada’s new mortgage rules could leave millennials struggling to buy a home, realtors say.

But there are benefits, too. Such as keeping them from buying units they can’t afford.

A Vancouver home for sale. (Photo: Jonathan Hayward/CP)

Millennials could lose as much as 20 per cent of their “purchasing power” when new federal mortgage rules kick in on Oct. 17, the B.C. Real Estate Association (BCREA) said Thursday.

“Purchasing power” describes a consumer’s ability to buy goods and services. In this case, it means the amount they can borrow to buy a home.

The BCREA arrived at its conclusion using a family with a household income of $80,000.

Such a household can currently buy a $505,000 home with a five per cent down payment.

But that wouldn’t be possible under the new rules because of a “stress test” requiring all insured mortgages, which have down payments of less than 20 per cent, to be qualified at higher rates, the BCREA said.

This hypothetical family could only buy a $405,000 property under the new rules — $100,000, or 20 per cent less than what they could have had before…