Articles
Mortgage Term: Emergency Fund
Understand the importance of building a robust emergency fund, its key characteristics and how you should prioritize your expenditures.
Leveraging a Living Inheritance
A "living inheritance" is a financial strategy that has gained popularity among older generations looking to support their children's futures while still alive. This approach involves transferring wealth to children or grandchildren during the parents' or...
10 Ways Inflation Impact Real estate Prices
Inflation exerts a multifaceted influence on the real estate market, affecting everything from construction costs to investment strategies. Allow me to provide a comprehensive overview that explores the various ways in which inflation impacts real estate prices,...
10 Reasons Real Estate is So Expensive
Real estate prices are influenced by a variety of factors, making it expensive in many places. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and the cost for different kinds of real estate in different places is always unique to that location. Further, in real estate,...
The Housing Market and The Power of Lower Rates
Lower interest rates are crucial to reviving the housing market. Learn why lower rates are essential and how they can stimulate demand.
Price of Commuting: The Daily Journey into Toronto
Real Estate > Personal Finance > Mortgage In the golden light of dawn, while much of Ontario still slumbers, thousands of commuters from suburbs like Whitby and Oakville embark on their daily pilgrimage to Toronto. This journey, often romanticized as a quest for...
Canada Child Benefit and Your Mortgage
Raising a family in Canada comes with significant financial responsibilities, from childcare costs to daily household expenses. For many families, the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) serves as a crucial financial lifeline, providing tax-free monthly payments to support...
How Assets Support a Mortgage
Securing a mortgage in Canada has long been an income-driven process. Lenders scrutinize pay stubs, tax returns, and employment history to determine whether a borrower qualifies. However, in today’s evolving financial landscape, assets play an increasingly significant...
Understanding Alternative Lenders
Understanding Alternative Lenders: Often called B lending, it gives a regulated institutional lender room to understand a non-standard income pattern, a bruised but explainable credit history, a rental portfolio, or another wrinkle that prime policy may not accept.
Understanding Debt Service Ratios GDS/TDS
Understanding Debt Service Rations GDS/TDS: When you hear that your mortgage application is ‘a little tight on ratios,’ it can sound like lender-speak for a hard no. It is not quite that simple. Canadian lenders use two percentages – Gross Debt Service, or GDS, and Total Debt Service, or TDS – to compare your gross income with the payments you are expected to carry.
Why So Much Documentation?
A mortgage is more than a simple loan—it’s a long-term financial commitment requiring meticulous documentation. Ensuring every piece of paperwork is in order accelerates approvals, improves financing terms, and minimizes stress during the home-buying process. Proper...
Mortgage Term: Disability Assistance Payment
Discover what disability assistance payments are, and how they help parents save for the long-term financial security and housing of their disabled children.
Where You Get Your Mortgage
Where you get your mortgage can have a big impact on how much you have to pay in regular mortgage payments, how fast you can pay off your house, and what you need to do and have to qualify for. When asked, most Canadians think that 'the bank' is the only place they...
Gifted Funds and Mortgages
In the ever-evolving landscape of Canadian real estate, rising home prices have made it increasingly challenging for many buyers to enter the market. As a result, gifted funds for down payments have become a significant enabler for many prospective homeowners,...
Neo Financial Mortgages
Neo Financial is a Canadian technology company that has built a modern financial services platform around the idea that Canadians have been underserved by traditional finance for a long time.
Understanding Variable Mortgages
Understanding Fixed Mortgages
Understanding Fixed Mortgages: A fixed mortgage can feel like putting a fence around one of your household’s biggest expenses: for the length of your term, the interest rate—and usually the required principal-and-interest payment—stays put.
Canada’s Non-Federally Regulated Mortgage Providers
Mortgage providers in Canada are either federally or provincially regulated. Canada's chartered banks are federally regulated while many other lenders (see below) are not. Getting a mortgage from a non-federally regulated mortgage provider in Canada has both...
Ontario Land Transfer Tax Rebate Explained
Imagine you and your partner are excited to buy your first home in Ontario. You spend your weekends looking at homes, dreaming of your future, and planning your perfect space. But then, you start to worry about the extra costs, like the land transfer tax. That's when...
Struggling Under the Stress Test
Discover how the mortgage stress test in Canada impacts the ability of Canadians to afford homes and the actionable steps you can take to address this requirement.
Balancing Financial and Lifestyle Goals
In the realm of personal finance and lifestyle design, real estate often serves as a cornerstone. It represents not only a significant financial investment but also a profound lifestyle choice. As a former realtor, financial advisor, and mortgage agent, I've observed...
Condition of Home Inspection
When purchasing a property, the condition of home inspection gives the buyer the right to hire a professional home inspector to assess the property's condition. If significant issues are uncovered, the buyer can renegotiate the price, request repairs, or cancel the...
Regulating the Canadian Mortgage Industry
The structure of the regulatory framework for the mortgage industry in Canada is intricate and multi-layered, involving federal, provincial, and municipal entities along with key market participants such as the Bank of Canada and the Canada Mortgage and Housing...
Home Appraisal vs Home Inspection
Discover the difference between a home inspection and a home appraisal and how those differences impact your purchase and finance decisions.
Condition of Appraisal
In real estate transactions, an appraisal condition is a clause in the Agreement of Purchase and Sale that makes the buyer's obligation to complete the purchase contingent upon the property's appraised value meeting or exceeding the agreed-upon purchase price. This...
Variable Rate Mortgages: Not All Calculated the Same
Canadians are changing their preferences for mortgages. With a recent decrease in interest rates and speculation that more could be coming, brokers have been advising their clients to return to variable-rate mortgages from the 5-year fixed mortgages that have been the...
Mortgage Term: Insolvency
Discover what insolvency means, the types of insolvency, and how insolvency can impact your credit and your mortgage options.
40 Year Canadian Mortgages: What You Need to Know
Discover the implications of 40-year mortgages in the Canadian real estate market. Explore the impact on homeowners, developers, and government policies. Find out the pros and cons of extended mortgage terms and seek professional advice before making a decision. Stay informed about interest rate changes and government initiatives for affordable housing.
Condition of Sale of Buyer’s Property
Navigating the real estate market can be complex, especially when conditions like "sale of current property" clauses—commonly referred to as Sale of Buyer’s Property (SBP) conditions—come into play. With the cooling real estate market, these conditions have made a...
Mortgages On Rural Properties
A rural property is not automatically a farm. For example, a detached home on five acres with a well, septic system and no meaningful farming operation may still qualify as a rural residential property. Conversely, substantial farming income, cultivated acreage,...
More Than Rate: Pre-Payment Privileges
Learn about the different kinds of prepayment privileges and discover why prepayment privileges are more important than interest rate when it comes to lowering the cost of your mortgage.
Divorce: 4 Mortgage Paths to Moving Forward
Divorce and your mortgage: 4 paths to moving forward. Discover the option that works for you.
Understanding Condo Reserve Funds
Discover what a condo reserve fund is, the signs it may be insufficient, and how to discover and avoid condos with insufficient reserve funds.
Mortgage Term: ESOP
Discover what an ESOP is and how it can support your mortgage application particularly under a Net Worth Program.
How the Trigger Point Impacts Canadians
With interest rate hikes, homeowners are facing the potential detonation of a financial bomb tied to their mortgages, the trigger rate. Let's get into how a trigger point on a fixed-payment, variable mortgage can have such a strong impact on Canadians: Impact of...
Condominium Conditions
When a person in Canada wishes to purchase a condominium, they put in their offer to purchase a condition to enable themselves, their lawyer, their realtor, and their mortgage agent and lender the opportunity to review detailed information about the financial and...
(RRSP) Home Buyers’ Plan: Saving for Your Home
RRSP Home Buyers Plan or Home Buyer Plan. Unlock your RRSP savings to buy your first home with the Home Buyers’ Plan. Learn how to make a tax-free withdrawal for your down payment.
Featured Publications
Articles
- Extended Amortizations and Hypothetical Calculations
Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) - Minimum Qualifying Rate for Uninsured Mortgages
Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) - Residential Mortgage Underwriting Practices and Procedures
Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) - Guideline on Existing Consumer Mortgage Loans in Exceptional Circumstances Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
Book: “The Program”
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