Earlier this month, the Bank of Canada made another jumbo rate cut of half a percentage point (0.50%) off the prime lending rate. Let's take a look at what this means for you as a current or future homeowner, as well as what this means for the state of our economy in Canada. To begin, if you have a variable rate mortgage, since June you've seen your interest rate be cut by 1.75%, which is a major drop in interest rate. To put this into context, what this means is that for every $100,000 of mortgage money that you currently owe on…

To compete for business, banks will often incentivize homeowners by offering either cash-back or cash bonuses to earn their mortgage business.

This isn’t just a way of earning business, but by dangling a carrot and getting you focused on the cash it steers the conversation away from the fine print and important features of the mortgage that could easily cost you more money in the long run.

With today’s interest rate market being less than friendly, current and future homeowners are wondering if there is a way to find a lower interest rate like what we saw between 2020-2021.

For future home buyers, one option is they can consider finding a seller who has an ‘assumable’ mortgage that they can take-over.

With interest rates being the highest they’ve been in over 10 years, along with the stress test reducing what buyers qualify for this has created a number of issues for buyers attempting to find an approval for their home purchase or homeowners to complete their refinancing.

For this reason, among many others alternative financing is becoming increasingly popular as people try to find creative ways to get the job done.

Alternative financing allows current and future homeowners access to bank programs otherwise unavailable through traditional forms of financing.

Simply put, these programs are very versatile and open the door of possibilities when you keep running into rejections from your traditional lender.

Assuming a Special Assessment is a Bad Thing

A special assessment also known as a special levy, is when the members of a strata vote to make major repairs or upgrades on the building. This leads to the strata imposing a levy on the unit owners for part of the costs of the repairs. 

When it’s mortgage renewal time, many people just simply sign that renewal letter they will get in the mail from their lender. While there’s nothing wrong with that approach, mortgage renewal is a fantastic time to find a better deal, save money and take advantage of mortgage features and products that may be better suited for you. 

Taking your first steps towards a mortgage and getting a foot on the property ladder can be a really exciting time. But it’s also important you’re armed with the right information before you start your journey to homeownership. However, splitting the fact from fiction isn’t all that easy, particularly when some of the mortgage myths out there have been doing the rounds for many years. To make sure you know fact from fiction, we have written down a few myths commonly heard amongst friends, family and co-workers.

Once you’ve decided to buy your first home, there’s a good chance that you’re planning to obtain a mortgage to finance the purchase. Acquiring a mortgage can seem intimidating and complicated to most first-time homebuyers, but it doesn’t have to be. When you prepare appropriately and have the right professionals to assist you, applying for a mortgage is pretty easy.