Skip to main content

New Mortgage Rules will affect first-time buyers



OTTAWA – Canada’s first-time home buyers may have to shelve their dream house fantasies due to lending changes announced this week by the federal government, mortgage brokers say.
Ottawa moved this week to tighten mortgage lending rules that will limit the amount many Canadians can borrow to help ensure that when interest rates rise, they’ll still be able to make their payments.
Mortgage broker Frank Napolitano says that means the size of mortgage many buyers will be able to qualify for will be less once the rules take effect on Oct. 17.
“First-time homebuyers will probably have to probably scale down the type of home that they may have planned to buy,” said Napolitano, managing partner at Mortgage Brokers Ottawa.

Under the new rules, a stress test that had only applied to borrowers who opted for variable rate mortgages or fixed rate mortgages with terms less than five years will now be used for all home buyers with less than a 20 per cent down payment.

That means borrowers must be able to qualify for their mortgage using a higher interest rate than they will actually be paying on their mortgage.
The advertised special offer rates for a five-year fixed rate mortgage at Canada’s big banks are around 2.5 per cent. However, the Bank of Canada-posted rate used in the stress test is 4.64 per cent based on the posted rate at the big banks.
“You’re not paying more, but you’re going to be able to buy less house,” Napolitano said.
wait.” New Mortgage Rules will affect first-time home buyers

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Where to invest in real estate now

"Want to buy a house in Vancouver? Hope you have lots of cash. The average price of a house in Lotus Land hit $490,004 in February. Think about it for a second. That's nearly half a million dollars--and 26.5% higher than a year ago. Put another way, it now takes a household income of $142,000 a year to comfortably purchase a place to live. Wasn't the real estate market supposed to slow down this year? Apparently not. And it's not just Vancouver that's experiencing double-digit price increases so far this year. Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) figures show the average home price from February 2005 to February 2006 rose 26% in Calgary and 15.5% in Edmonton, both economic boomtowns of late. But even relatively moribund Toronto saw an increase of nearly 6%, for an average price of almost $354,000. That's a lot of money to put on the line if you're thinking of investing in the real estate market--let alone looking for a place to live. No wonder people are...

Reverse mortgage can pump up your retirement pay

"QUESTION: My husband and I are retired with a total annual income of $40,000. We owe $145,000 on our home, which is worth $475,000. We don't have any extra to play with. We would like to know whether you would advise us to consider a reverse mortgage. ANSWER: A reverse mortgage could pay off your existing mortgage and eliminate the monthly mortgage payments you are currently paying. This could free up some income for you to play with each month. Here's essentially how it would work. A reverse mortgage would pay off your existing mortgage balance of $145,000. Then, rather than having to make monthly interest and principal payments, the interest charged on the loan would simply add to the balance of the loan. Let's assume your home will appreciate by 4 percent in the coming years, and the reverse mortgage interest rate averages 6 percent. Ten years from now, your home is worth $703,000 and the balance on the reverse mortgage is $260,000. In 20 years, your home is worth ...