This has been one spectacular swandive in the 5-year Canadian bond yield. We ended Thursday at 1.01%, an all-time low and just a “beep” above the psychological threshold of one percent. If you’ve been watching this waterfall in yields over the past two months, you may well be wondering, “If bonds lead fixed mortgage rates, […]

From credit cards to your mortgage rate, there may be impending changes for your financial products this year – and the price of oil may be largely to blame. While the effects may be positive for some (cheaper gas and lower home prices are certainly reason to smile), the Bank of Canada warns the long-term consequences of low oil won’t be so cheery.
Meanwhile, credit card holders could see a cut to their reward earning potential, as new fee caps are slated to take hold this spring.
Interchange Fee Cut: A New Reality For Your Credit Card Rewards?
Visa and MasterCard will be capping interchange fees, which merchants pay on every card transaction, this coming April. It’s great news for retailers – but could slimmer profits for banks mean you’ll earn fewer rewards with your favourite credit card?
Read on to get the full story.
Read Penelope’s Blog | A New Reality For Your Credit Card Rewards?
Is Online Credit Card Use Still Safe?
With several retailer data breaches making headlines, it’s no wonder consumers are feeling wary about using their credit cards online…

The start of 2015 has brought around some mortgage underwriting changes that are a little bit less than positive for many Canadians.  I have included some of the details and commentary on the mortgage changes below.
Details of the mortgage changes:
These changes did not happen overnight, rather the government had requested lenders to have them completed by the end of 2013 and then provided an extension to lenders until the end of 2014.  As a result, some lenders instituted these changes at the end of 2013, some throughout 2014, and some waited until the last day of 2014 to finalize the changes.
Secured Lines of Credit:
Lenders will calculate the minimum payment using the current balance and the benchmark rate, amortized over 25 years. If the borrower can provide proof that the contract rate (your mortgage rate) is lower than the benchmark rate (currently 4.79%), lenders can use the contract rate instead.
Example: 
Lets say you have a balance of $100 000 on your secured line of credit…

Company: Bello Mortgage Corp. Ltd. Position Title: Mortgage Agent/Broker Years of Experience Required: NA Licences Required: Mortgage Agent/Broker Location of Position: Anywhere in B.C. Applicants may contact: info@bellomortgage.ca Advertise your mortgage Read More

While most Canadians want to be debt free, those carrying mortgages feel more comfortable owing money than previous generations.

RRSPs, RESPs, a mortgage: Monday Makeover looks at Toronto couple. Mom has a two-hour commute, and wants more time with children.

Self employed mortgage options
As we discussed in the “building blocks of your mortgage” section, mortgages are made up of a sum of our down payment, credit, and income.  In the case of many self employed clients, they have the flexibility to show less personal income in lieu of their write offs in the case of a sole proprietor, and retained earnings in the case of a corporation.  For self employed mortgage lending in Canada, many lenders have specialized and unique programs that allow for more flexible income underwriting in lieu of stronger down payment and good credit.
The government, through their bill called B-20, has made changes that lenders have since implemented that place much stronger restrictions upon how lenders determine reasonable income for self employed clients. The below  options are assuming we do not fit the “traditional income ratios” discussed previously.  Prior to the government changes we would often confirm that our clients were self employed and the length of their self employment…

The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has once again moved to crimp the residential mortgage market, introducing changes that will soon make it more difficult for many Canadians to obtain government-financed secured mortgages.
Starting May 30, CMHC will no longer insure mortgages for self-employed Canadians unless their income is formally validated by a third party. More importantly, it’s not going to provide insurance for existing homeowners looking to purchase a second property.
As it stand now, homebuyers in Canada are legally required to purchase mortgage insurance if they don’t put down 20 per cent of the price of the home up front. Buyers pay for the insurance, but it’s the lender that’s actually the beneficiary since the insurance covers the company’s losses if the homeowner defaults.
Fewer Options for Second Home Purchases
This latest change marks the fourth time the government – in an effort to dampen what it believes to be excessive speculation in the housing market – has tightened mortgage rules over the past few years…

Illustrations by Amedeo De Palma
Maria Tucker, Toronto
Then: February/March 2004
&
Now…
Ten years ago Maria Tucker was a 42-year-old marketing executive, earning a six-figure salary in Toronto. She was a single mom just a year away from paying off the mortgage on her townhouse. And because of her good saving habits, she’d tucked away $91,000 into her RRSP. But even though Maria was a huge success at both her job and her finances, she’d grown tired of work-related stress and labouring away at 70-hour workweeks. She wanted to kick back, take a few photography and cooking courses and spend more time with her daughter Christina, then 13. “I feel like the world is whipping by and I’m stuck in a corporate wind tunnel,” she told MoneySense back in 2004.
Being no stranger to hard work, Maria was willing to take part-time jobs—even tending bar or bagging groceries—to finance her escape from corporate life. Still, she didn’t want to endanger Christina’s university education or the quality of their life together…

Illustrations by Amedeo De Palma
Frank Mancini, Port Alberni, B.C.
Then: November 2006
&
Now…
We met young entrepreneur Frank Mancini eight years ago when he was running his own convenience store in Port Alberni, B.C. A self-confessed micromanager who didn’t mind getting his hands dirty, at age 33 Frank was making $126,000 per year and had a net worth of almost $600,000. But he felt pigeon-holed by his job and dreamt of retiring at 45 to see the world. Frank felt that goal was within reach, because he was single, had no dependents and planned to keep it that way. He figured he was on his way to a seven-figure nest egg by age 45. Still, he wasn’t absolutely sure how much he would need for his super-sized retirement. “I’m not an extravagant spender,” he told us back in 2006. “But I really don’t know how much I will need to finance several years of living abroad.”
At the time, nearly every penny of his money was tied up in his business, his home and a mortgage on a commercial investment property…

REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
After a brain-frying degree program many years ago, I put some serious distance between myself and the books by teaching English in Tokyo. Graduating was great, but in those 12 ramen-slurping months I learned more about the world—and myself—than countless essays could ever cover.
Gap years—“life sabbaticals” to travel, work or volunteer before the shackles of careers and mortgages take hold—can be the ideal introduction to independent adulthood. Traditionally taken by Europeans between high school and university, they’re growing in popularity with North Americans, who tend to take them after completing university. But with more options to consider than a wide-eyed backpacker with a Eurail pass, significant pre-trip homework is required. Your enlightened future self—and the Bank of Mom and Dad—will forever thank you for it.
First up: the grand plan. While some are lured by the idea of extended couch residencies, gap years are only meaningful if there’s a valid reason—typically something that’ll shine on your résumé…

On Friday May 24 the Government of Canada via CMHC announced that they were taking steps that could dramatically affect the ability of Canadians to purchase a new home in Canada.  They did this by announcing that they are discontinuing the CMHC second home mortgage program.
My initial thought when I heard the announcement was that our clients purchasing recreational property, second homes for their kids to live in during university, or a home for their elderly parents would either have to work with Genworth or Canada Guaranty (the two alternatives to CMHC), or put down 20% down payment instead of 5%.  Honestly my initial response was that this was not a big deal………Until I read the fine print…..
The fine print of the removal of the CMHC second home mortgage
The fine print and also the most damaging aspect of this change is the CMHC is not just removing the second home mortgage program, they are only allowing Canadians to have One CMHC insured mortgage at any given time…

Company: Freedom Lending Position Title: Mortgage Agent Years of Experience Required: N/A Licences or Registrations Required: FSCO licence Location of Position: GTA and surrounding area Applicants may contact: joinus@freedomlending.ca Click…

Scotiabank has eliminated blends and increases on regular mortgages. From this point forward, Scotia customers who want to add new money (without breaking their mortgage) will need to have, or…

CMHC insurance premiums are increasing effective May 1, 2014
For almost every purchase in Canada where clients are putting down less than 20% down payment, your mortgage is insured against default by on of the mortgage insurers in Canada, either CMHC, Genworth, or Canada Guaranty.  Effective May 1, the insurers in Canada are increasing their insurance premiums by about 15% for all premiums.
A couple of items to realize, this is only effective for borrowers who are approved for their mortgage after May 1, if you are already approved prior to the change date and your possession is after, you will still receive the benefit of the lower insurance premium.  From a big picture view, this is not a big deal for most borrowers in terms of mortgage qualification or payments.  For an average $300 000 mortgage amount with 5% down payment the CMHC insurance premium added to your mortgage increases by about $1200 in total.  This results in an overall payment increase of $5 per month or a total of $300 over an entire five year term…

Being mortgage-free at a young age can seem like a pipe dream, but for me it will soon be a reality. I plan to be mortgage-free before the age of 31 – and it all started less than two years ago, when I made an aggressive plan to pay down my mortgage in five years.
Home sweet home – and almost paid off!
My Start In The Housing Market
In August 2012, I purchased my house for $425,000 in Toronto, one of Canada’s most expensive housing markets. Since then, I’ve already paid off over $100,000 from my mortgage, which started at $255,000 and today it sits at just $137,000. I know paying off your mortgage early seems difficult, but I’m living proof it can be a reality.
So, how did I do it?

 I Used My Mortgage Pre-Payment Privileges
Here’s the catch regarding mortgage pre-payment privileges – many Canadians simply aren’t using them, with less than four in 10 homeowners (38 per cent) taking advantage of them last year, according to the Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals (CAAMP)…

After “What is your best rate?” the next most popular mortgage question is probably “Which term do you recommend?” — or a variation thereof. But it’s tough to generalize about…

Dominion Lending Centres Canada 5 year Closed mortgage rate was changed on December 03, 2013

Renovation mortgage options in Canada can vary dramatically from lender to lender and from client to client depending upon your renovation budget, current equity position, and current credit and income.  We have many years of experience in working with our clients to ensure they have the best renovation mortgage options and that their transaction works beautifully.
Two different renovation mortgage options:
Secured line of credit option (HELOC):

This option is a great fit for clients who have strong equity positions in their homes as it allows them to access funds via cheque, debit card, or online money transfer at their sole discretion.  For example if your contractor completes their work and asks for a $25 000 payment, you simply write him a cheque from your line of credit account and your are all set.  
The disadvantage to this structure is that it is only a fit for clients who have an existing strong equity position.  The government of Canada limits secured line of credit lending to 65% of your home value, and overall mortgage lending to 80% of your value…

Dominion Lending Centres Canada 5 year Closed mortgage rate was changed on November 19, 2013

Wish you didn’t have to pay your mortgage this month? There are services that can make this a reality – if you run into financial hardship or simply want to take a break from paying your mortgage, your lender may allow you to take a ‘mortgage vacation’. The concept sounds simple enough: you have the option of prepaying a certain amount of your mortgage, and then you can take a break from paying anything for a few months.
While it may sound good on paper, there’s a catch – interest still accrues during these months and is added to your total principal, which can cost thousands more in interest in the long run. Let’s take in-depth look at mortgage vacations and see if they are all they’re cracked up to be.
How Mortgage Vacations Work
Just like when you take a vacation from work, mortgage vacations require some planning ahead of time. Here’s an example of how to set one up:
If your mortgage payment is $1,500 per month and you want to skip your mortgage payments for four months while you go back to school, you’ll need to prepay an extra $6,000 ($1,500 X 4 months)…

Dominion Lending Centres Canada 5 year Variable Closed mortgage rate was changed on November 15, 2013

Think that house in the suburbs is cheaper than the house in the city? Not so fast, argues a new report by Sustainable Prosperity, a national research and policy network, based at the University of Ottawa.
Researchers estimate suburban households drive roughly three times as much as families close to the city centre resulting in hefty car ownership and fuel expenses. Eliminating one car from a Calgary household’s bills for instance could net $10,000 a year. Multiply that over the life of a mortgage and suddenly that home in the ‘burbs costs hundreds of thousands of dollars more than the sticker price suggests. Home buyers should consider the costs of more than just propriety at time of purchase,” the report authors said.
MoneySense followed two families last year to explore the benefits and pitfalls of suburban and city life. Miles apart: suburbs vs. city is a great read if you’re considering a move yourself.
Urban sprawl also gives rise to a host of other socio-economic issues, as illustrated by this infographic created by Jack Dylan of Point Blank Creative for Sustainable Prosperity…

If you’re an investor in a publicly traded mortgage investment corporation (MIC), there are changes on the horizon that could impact your investment. They range from new regulatory restrictions to…

Do you have an upcoming Equitable Bank Mortgage renewal?
If the answer is yes, we can often help you obtain better rates and terms for your renewal with Equitable Bank than they are offering you on your renewal paperwork.  We are a high volume funder with Equitable Bank and are able to work with the lender on your behalf to help you obtain better rates and terms for your mortgage renewal.  So, your first question might be “what is the catch?” and this is a great question, fortunately I have an even better answer.  Simply put there is no catch, the only paperwork required from you is for you to sign a client authorization form that lets us speak with Equitable on your behalf.  Once we receive that form from you we are able to use our strong relationship with the lender to negotiate a better renewal deal for you!
I have included a recent Equitable Bank mortgage renewal client example below:

Three year mortgage rate offered by Equitable to the client: 4.90%
Once our client completed the authorization form and we were able to work with Equitable we were able to negotiate an early renewal rate of: 4…

Every week, I get dozens of press releases from media professionals across the country looking to have their story featured on MoneySense.ca. Some are about new products, others are about upcoming events but the vast majority are findings from some survey or other. I pay most attention to the ones that cast the spotlight on some piece of information that you, dear reader, may find helpful on your personal journey to financial independence. This week however a press release on the topic of love and money caught my eye and entirely for selfish reasons: I’m getting hitched in 6 weeks.
TD Canada Trust surveyed adults in committed relationships and found 79% of Canadian couples have joint finances; no surprise there. But here’s where it gets interesting, well for me anyway. The top three personal finance products that Canadians combine with their partner are a joint bank account (64%), a mortgage (60%) and a joint credit card (50%), the bank found. Looks like my husband-to-be and I are taking the road less travelled…

Flexible and creative Alberta acreage mortgage options:
We have the pleasure to work with many clients who have approached their bank about purchasing a new acreage in Alberta only to find out that their bank typically doesn’t love financing acreages and will put up various road blocks along the way to try and either reduce their approval amount or not approve their mortgage at all.  The two biggest stumbling points that you will typically find are:

The bank will only finance the value of your home plus five to ten acres of land:

For example, this can become a challenge when you are purchasing an home with 30 acres and have 20% down payment.  If we assume your home value is $300 000 and your per acre value is $10 000, this would yield a $600 000 purchase price.  In the case of a lender who will only lend on a home plus 5 acres, they will use a $350 000 value and lend on 80% of that.  This would result in a dramatic increase in your down payment required.  In the above example if you have budgeted 20% down payment for your $600 000 purchase, you were planning on a down payment of $120 000…

A New York jury has found Bank of America Corp. liable for mortgage fraud after a month-long trial.

If you’re buying a home without 20% down, you generally need an insured mortgage. The insurer that assumes your risk of default will, in turn, charge you an insurance premium….

Filed under: Employment & Careers, Economizer, House & Home, Real Estate, Your Home
If you’re living by yourself, you’re not alone. According to a recent census report by Statistics Canada, one-person households are on the rise and the movement is happening globally. It’s a phenomenon producer/director Scott Harper looks at in his documentary Flying Solo, premiering Thursday October 24 on CBC-TV’s Doc Zone. Through Harper’s initial research, he found one in three people in Canada lives alone. When he set out to explore why this is happening here and around the world, Harper says he found the story becomes different at the different stages of a person’s life but overall it amounts to a trend that will continue to grow. Here are some of his findings behind why people are following the path to singledom:

SLIDESHOW: 5 Reasons People Stay Single

RELATED LINKS:
Women Making Tiny Strides in Business but Not Fast Enough
Rising Mortgage Rates Fail to Cool Housing Market
Atwood Joins Push to Get Women on Canadian MoneyFive Reasons More People are Choosing to Live Alone originally appeared on Walletpop Canada on Mon, 21 Oct 2013 12:20:00 EST…

Company: Educators Financial Group Position Title: Regional Director, Lending Services (Ottawa-Carleton) Yeears of Experience Required: Over 10 years business development experience in financial services and sales, specifically residential mortgages, lines…

Fixed vs Variable Mortgages (to lock in or to float)
The Canadian mortgage markets have shifted and there is a legitimate conversation for the choice between fixed and variable mortgages.  For the past two years the variable rate mortgage has been a poor choice for most clients.  This is a result of the fixed and variable being almost the same rate, for example in May of 2013 we have five year fixed rate mortgages at 2.79% and five year variable mortgages at 2.70% (prime -.3).  When the rates are as close as they were, unless there is a very specific reason for wanting a variable, the best choice for almost all of our mortgage clients was to select a fixed rate.
 My personal rule is that once there is a 1% or larger gap between fixed and variable rates, then the variable is definately worth considering.  
Currently we have a gap of 1%, with the fixed rates being ~3.59% and the variable being ~2.60%.  My personal caveat is that although I will explain a strategy that we have used with many of our clients and have had tremendous results with, there are some clients that are truly a best fit for the fixed rate and I would never fault anyone for selecting the current fixed rates as they are historically excellent…

Have you ever had a sick feeling in your stomach after buying a car, or a big screen TV, or a boat, or expensive jewelry? It’s that nagging worry that…

Builder mortgages can be a very large and encompassing area of mortgage lending.  This article is about mortgage lending for home builders, more specifically lending low cost, flexible mortgage funds for their current completed homes that are in their inventory.
Many of our home builder clients have either larger commercial lines of credit to facilitate their home building expenses or obtain private builder financing or a combination of both.  This creates a two fold challenge:

With builders’ lines of credit the challenge is our home builder clients run out of money as they continue to build.  For example if a home builder has a $5 000 000 line of credit, he starts five new homes a month, and his average land and build cost is $400 000, he will run out of money in two and a half months.
With private builder mortgages, the challenge is that the cost for these funds is typically around 12% interest, so once the home is complete if the builder is still holding it, their profit margin decreases daily due to higher interest expenses…

Laurentian Bank Canada 3 year Variable Closed mortgage rate was changed on September 12, 2013

DUCA Financial Services 4 year Closed mortgage rate was changed on September 12, 2013

Bank of Montreal 7 year Closed mortgage rate was changed on September 14, 2013

Canada’s housing market roller coaster is a regular headline topper – but how does it compare to property markets around the world? According to Scotiabank’s Global Real Estate Trends report, some of our global counterparts are strengthening, despite lingering post-recession economic woes.
“Despite the sluggish pace of economic activity and elevated financial market volatility, inflation-adjusted home prices strengthened year-over-year in the second quarter in the majority of countries we survey,” says Adrienne Warren, a senior economist at Scotiabank.
On The Home Front
In Canada, we’ve seen Q2 year-over-year inflation-adjusted home prices rise 2.5 per cent, as sales show no sign of slowing, despite economist warnings of a market downturn. Home prices are still within historical norms, but mortgage interest rates are slowly meandering upwards. This has led to economists to call for a slight cooling of the housing market next year thanks to “slowing job growth and the recent uptick in fixed mortgage rates…

First Calgary Financial 2 year Closed mortgage rate was changed on July 24, 2013

The Department of Finance and CMHC recently announced that they were enforcing their CMHC limits on Canadian Lenders.
First, a little bit of the back story on CMHC limits:
Every January, the government of Canada and CMHC set a maximum amount of mortgage volume that CMHC is allowed to insure.  For 2013, that number was $85 billion, however, by the end of July lenders had already used $66 billion or 78% the insurance allowed for this year.   To ensure that the insurance limit is not reached before the end of the year, and that all lenders and in turn Canadians have fair access to CMHC insurance, it has recently been announced that each lender has been limited to $350 million of insurance for this month.  This is a stop gap procedure until a more formalized allocation and process can be created by CMHC.
Rylan, what do you think could have caused this run on CMHC limits?
Well, I am glad you asked.  My personal thought is that the blame for this “emergency” lies with the banks and more specifically with their pocket protector wearing risk managers…

Real estate blogger Jamie Sarner has interesting post about how to finance the stage in between buying a new home and selling the old one.
On a related note, The Greater Fool has good blog post on VTBs, or vendor take-back mortgages. Here’s why the concept popularized in the 1990s is catching on again and why he thinks you should be wary of it.
BMO and Vanguard launched new investment products this week. BMO introduced two new portfolio solutions andfive new mutual funds. Vanguard meanwhile introduced five new equity ETFs with average management fee of 0.21%.

Take a peek at the recent trend in this chart. (Chart source: MarketWatch) It’s a graph of the 5-year government bond yield—the guiding force behind long-term fixed mortgage rates. On…

Q: We have purchased a new home and were planning to sell our current home. We are now thinking about renting it and taking some equity out to use for the down payment on our new home. Does this make sense?
—J.O., Woodstock, Ont.
A: We don’t love this strategy. While it is possible, we think it is too complex for most people to pull off effectively. Ask yourself some questions before you decide if it is right for you.
First, would this rental business be profitable? Look at how much you could realistically rent the property for, subtract the costs of the mortgage, maintenance, and property taxes and factor in the relevant tax deductions on those expenses to see if you’d be able to at least break even. You’ll need to talk to your lender to see how financing will work between the new home and the rental property to see what your interest expense will be. And be sure to factor into your math higher interest rates down the road. While you’re at it, talk to a professional tax adviser, says Evelyn Jacks, author of Jacks on Tax…