Effective September 2, 2019, the Government of Canada introduced the First Time Home Buyer Incentive (FTHBI) to help qualified First Time Home Buyers (FTHB) purchase a home, making homeownership more affordable by reducing their monthly mortgage payment without increasing their down payment.  

On Wednesday, October 24, 2018, Bank of Canada announced to raise the over night lending right by another 0.25%. Effectively, the mortgage prime rate has increased from 3.70% to 3.95% with most lenders. (TD mortgage prime increased from 3.85% to 4.10%).

If you wonder whether this is the good time to lock in your variable rate, please talk to us to explore your options.

Bank of Canada (BOC) announced interest rate increase this morning by 0.25%.

That means the current mortgage prime rate of 3.45% will soon by 3.70% for most of the lenders.

For those of us who have variable rate mortgages, we should expect to receive a letter in early August from lenders to notify us of such changes. 

If you are wondering whether to lock in your variable rate or not, please reach to us for a consultation.

While the anticipations are for the interest rate to go up, Bank of Canada has taken a conservative approach and announced to maintain the overnight lending rate at 1.25%. 

The next interest announcement date is May 30th and we yet to find out whether the rate hike is going to happen.

For today's best mortgage rates, please click here

Earlier this morning, BOC has announced interest rate increase by 0.25%.

That means today's prime rate of 3.20% will soon be 3.45% for most banks and financial institutions (TD's prime is 3.35%, will soon be 3.60%). 

If you have a variable rate mortgage and not sure whether you should lock in to a fixed rate or not, please contact us and we shall give you some advice.

Previously when a client asks us how much he/she can borrow, the answer has always been 4 to 6 times of your income, provided no other major debts.

As of January 01, 2018, all the federally regulated banks have to implement the Stress Test on ALL mortgages across the board. That means, your maximum borrowing power will be 4 to 5 times of your income, provided no other major debts.

Most of our lenders are regulated federally; therefore, they have to comply with the new Rules.

CMHC is increasing its homeowner mortgage loan insurance premiums effective March 17, 2017. 

CMHC’s standard mortgage loan insurance premiums will be changing as follows:

Loan-to-Value Ratio

Standard Premium (Current)

Standard Premium (Effective March 17, 2017)

Up to and including 85%

1.80%

2.80%

Up to and including 90%

2.40%

3.10%

Up to and including 95%

3.60%

4.00%

In response to Federal government’s mortgage rules change announcement on Oct. 03, 2016, all the lenders have implemented the new rules in the past few weeks and now the new lending guidelines are in effect.

Here is a brief summary of the new rules:

1). For insured and insurable deals, the applications have to meet the following parameters:

Following TD’s increase to its prime rate, RBC announces to increase their fixed rates across the board, effective today.

This might be a signal that all other lenders will soon to follow the measure to increase their prime rate.

Due to the higher bond rate market, the 5-year fixed rate has jumped about 25 basis points amongst most of the lenders.

Will the increased rates and tightened mortgage rules cool down the over-heated real estate market? Only time can tell.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau's news release this morning will have a great impact on future home buyers borrowing capacities and lender’s lending policies.

In order to protect and stabilize the ever steaming real estate market in GTA and GVA, the federal government is proposing the following changes to mortgage lending rules: