Why are mortgages so expensive in Canada? + MORE Sep 26th

I have to admit that when I first heard about RetireMint, it was the clever name that initially got my attention. At first glance, it seems like a misspelling of the ubiquitous term retirement. However, those who follow personal finance news and use the numerous tools and apps devoted to it will probably know about products with the word Mint in them. Intuit once had a free budget tracker and planner called Mint, although it was shut down earlier this year.

What is RetireMint?

But now that I have your attention, let me add that RetireMint (with a capital M, followed by a lower-case letter i rather than an e) is a Canadian retirement platform. And it just might affect how you plan for both the financial and the lifestyle aspects of retirement. There’s not a lot of risk, as you can try it for free at retiremint.ca. In fact, there will be no charge at all for retirement planning users, RetireMint co-founder and CEO Ryan Donovan told me in an email. Nor is there advertising…

Life is full of big expenses. If you ever need a new car, have a home emergency or simply want to take a vacation, might consider getting credit to pay for it. Both personal loans and lines of credit are ways to borrow money for large spends, but there are some significant differences between the two types of credit. This article provides a roadmap to deciding which is best for your needs. 

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Personal loans vs. lines of credit

With a personal loan, you borrow a single (fixed) amount of money from a bank or other lender. In return, you agree to pay back the principal plus interest over a certain period of time. This is called “installment credit.” Often, personal loans are for specific expenses. For example, you might apply for a car loan to buy a vehicle, or a debt consolidation loan to reduce your debt. Personal loans can be secured with collateral or unsecured, and the amount you’re eligible to receive is tied to your credit history and financial picture…

Interest rates have trended steadily lower over the late summer, and as a result, Canadians are finding it slightly easier to buy real estate. Prices are coming down, but Canadian mortgages are still expensive.

This is according to the latest home affordability report compiled by Ratehub (which owns Ratehub.ca as well as MoneySense.ca), a study that assesses real estate data from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), as well as mortgage and stress test rates, to determine how affordability is evolving on a month-over-month basis.

The findings rank cities based on the income required to purchase the average-priced home there, and it found 12 of 13 of Canada’s major markets improved for affordability conditions. This was largely due to a drop in the average five-year fixed mortgage rate in August, which lowered to 5.16% from 5.29% in July. By extension, the average mortgage stress test, which adds 2% onto a borrowers’ contract mortgage rate, fell to 7.16%.

The August numbers capture the first two rate cuts made by the Bank of Canada (BoC); the central bank decreased its benchmark cost of borrowing by a quarter of a percentage point each in June and July of this year…