Posts Tagged ‘mortgages’
Posted by Norm Fisher on May 4, 2010
According to the CBC, the Bank of Montreal is suing hundreds of people in Alberta, including lawyers, mortgage brokers and four of its own employees, in what is one of the largest alleged cases of mortgage fraud in Canadian history. Legal documents obtained exclusively by CBC News allege the bank was the target of a [...]
Posted by Norm Fisher on March 29, 2010
The threat of higher fixed term mortgage rates became a reality this morning as the Royal Bank and TD Canada Trust announced significant hikes. The Laurentain Bank followed suit and it’s believed that other major lenders will quickly fall in line. Effective tomorrow, the posted rate for a five-year closed mortgage climbs by six-tenths of [...]
Posted by Norm Fisher on March 6, 2010
On February 16, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced new rules that affect mortgage lenders and borrowers starting on April 19 of this year. One of the changes requires that buyers qualify for their high-ratio mortgage based on the “five-year fixed rate” even if their mortgage payments are actually calculated on an available lower rate. In [...]
Posted by Norm Fisher on February 16, 2010
Insisting that Canada is not facing a housing bubble, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced a tightening on mortgage lending rules, which he says will “help prevent negative trends from developing.” Effective April 19, 2010 the following changes will take effect. Home buyers must qualify for their mortgage using the five-year fixed mortgage rate, regardless of [...]
Posted by Norm Fisher on February 16, 2010
Canada’s Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty will announce this morning a change in lending rules that will further limit the amount of cash buyers can borrow to finance a home according to a report on Globe and Mail. Stimulus cash, and historically low interest rates have created an enticing environment for Canadian home buyers who have [...]
Posted by Norm Fisher on December 21, 2009
For the first time since he initially acknowledged concern over a potential bubble in Canadian housing markets, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has openly indicated in an interview for CTV’s Question Period that higher down payments and shorter amortization periods are both on the table “if” there is further evidence of a bubble. “If we see [...]
Posted by Norm Fisher on December 10, 2009
An estimated 30,000 mortgages granted to Canadians with poor credit or insufficient incomes at the height of the Canadian housing boom will not be renewed when they mature over the next three years, according to a story on globeinvestor.com. The sub-prime lenders who granted the loans say that the investors who financed buyers at above [...]
Posted by Norm Fisher on August 19, 2009
Saskatoon city council, in a special emergency meeting today, granted a final extension to Lake Placid Developments to cough up the $4.55 million for land the developer purchased at River Landing by October 30 2009. The extension is conditional upon the developer paying interest to the City of Saskatoon in the amount of $214,197 by [...]
Posted by Norm Fisher on June 16, 2009
According to the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, “Saskatoon city council’s executive committee approved a new mortgage support program on Tuesday to help low- and moderate-income people get into the housing market. “Under the program, which will replace the home start affordable housing initiative, people with a household income of $52,000 or less will be given a [...]
Posted by Norm Fisher on March 14, 2009
A story titled, “Canada’s dirty subprime secret,” appears in today’s Globe and Mail and claims that Canadian leaders are simply wrong about the extent to which the subprime mortgage mess will affect Canadians. According to the Globe’s report, it’s a bigger problem than we might have expected and its effects are already being felt in [...]
Posted by Norm Fisher on October 10, 2008
In a move intended to “make loans more available and more affordable for Canadians and businesses,” Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced today that the Canadian government would purchase $25 billion dollars worth of mortgages already insured by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Flahrety insists that not a single Canadian bank is at risk of failing [...]