Ariana Leroux Mortgage Blog

Many first time home buyers stay away from buyer’s agents because they think it will cost them money. Well, the opposite is really true; a buyer’s agent will likely save you money. How, you ask? Well, most often the buyer doesn’t pay the agent, and the buyer gets the benefits of an agent’s knowledge, expertise, and negotiating skills. See our post about the benefits of a buyers agent for more info on how they can help. So, how does the buyer’s agent get paid? With the typical sale, a seller pays an agent to list the property for sale. Within the listing contract this listing broker says they will offer a specified percentage of their commission to a buyer’s agent, if there is one. So, the seller is paying a commission to the listing broker, and the listing broker is paying a commission to the buyer’s agent. This is the way most deals work.   Where the buyer needs to be careful is with FSBO’s (For Sale by Owner) and lower commission MLS deals. It’s becoming m...

November Housing Starts down 3.6% from October   Housing starts in Canada were trending at 214,680 units in November, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The trend is a six-month moving average of the monthly seasonally adjusted annual rates (SAAR) 1 of housing starts. The standalone monthly SAAR was 196,125 units in November, down from 203,487 in October. “As expected, housing starts remained below their recent trend and continued to fall for a third straight month. This decrease was mainly attributable to declines in single-detached and multi-unit housing construction in Ontario and British Columbia, resulting in part from a decline in the pace of pre-sales relative to that in late 2010 and early 2011,” said Mathieu Laberge, Deputy Chief Economist at CMHC. “The drop in starts in Atlantic Canada was primarily due to a decrease in multi-unit housing construction in Halifax, following higher than normal activ...

December 04, 2012 The BoC Rate Meeting: Nothing to See Here Today’s Bank of Canada rate announcement was another yawner. No one expected rates to rise. Analysts merely wanted to see if the Bank would drop hints on its future rate-setting plans. It did, but the new clues weren’t much different from its previous guidance. For mortgage watchers, the long and short of it was this: the Bank maintained its rate tightening bias, but short-term mortgage rates (which the BoC controls) are unlikely to jump near-term. The Bank’s outlook can largely be summarized in these snippets from today’s announcement : The global economy remains “vulnerable to major shocks from the U.S. or Europe.” In Canada, “…Underlying (economic) momentum appears slightly softer than previously anticipated…” Our economy has a “small degree of slack” “…The pace of economic growth is expected to pick up through 2013.” "Over time, some modest withdrawal of monetary policy stimulus will lik...

Governor  Mark Carney leaving - what now for Canada? Governor Mark Carney Mark Carney is leaving the helm of the Bank of Canada (BoC) in July of 2013 and heading  to the Bank of England. The governor of the  BoC is widely respected and is considered to  be the one responsible for steering the  Canadian economy through the global  financial crisis. Under Carney's leadership,  Canada has become the envy of other world  powers - banks didn't fail and the economy  has grown. Carney is seen as a strong central banker and  financial regulator and his approach to  monetary policy has triumphed. It started in  March 2008, when he decided to cut the  bank's overnight rate by 50 basis-points,  which was totally opposite to what other  countries were doing. His instincts have  proven to be correct. Then in April, 2009 he introduced a nonstandard monetary tool - the co...

In a slowing market, it is that much more effective. It was a prudent move....  The real estate industry has ramped up its attack on rules making it harder to borrow but its challenges face one big obstacle — mortgage restrictions are working exactly the way the federal government wants them to. In the past week the Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals weighed in with complaints that Ottawa’s restrictions were killing consumer confidence and even raised the stakes further by suggesting the entire Canadian economy was at stake. Toronto builders joined the fray, calling out the federal government for rules it maintains have a lot to do with the cooling market in the city that saw sales in October dip 14% below their long-term average. But Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has given no indication he is ready to reverse course on his tightened restrictions. There’s also the argument that it wasn’t the rules that have sabotaged the market, but rather an...

                                          Heads Up, In Regards to OSFIs B20 CHANGES While most of us already have felt the immediate changes of the 30 year amortization to 25 year, and the Home Equity Line of Credit change from 80% Loan to Value to 65% Loan to Value, some of you may not know some of the other changes as well for Underwriting Guidelines and there fore your immediate mortgage approval.  For Example financial institutions will be raising the Qualifying Rate on Variable, 1, 2, 3, and 4 year fixed terms to the Bank of Canada's current Benchmark rate (Currently at 5.24%). This comes into to play regardless of Loan to Value. Where as in the past with 3 years or under we could use the 3 year Qualifying Rate or sometimes best rate. Also the heat component of the ...