9 Ways to Keep Your Credit Score as High as Possible (Part II) In our previous post, we spoke about the fact that there are so many credit score providers out there, all providing different results, and chances are none of those results are the credit score lenders see when you apply for a loan product […]

Latest in Mortgage News: Home Price Recovery Not Expected Until 2022 On the heels of new data showing that home prices tumbled in April across many of Canada’s largest cities, CMHC is forecasting it will take at least until 2022 for a return to pre-recession levels. The federal housing agency modelled out a pandemic scenario […]

Why Is My Credit Score Different From What Lenders See? (Part I) It’s pretty easy to track your credit score these days⁠—perhaps through a paid subscription to Equifax Canada or Trans Union Canada, or through free offerings from your bank, or other entities such as Borrowell, Credit Karma, Mopolo or Mogo. But there is no consistency among these […]

Reaction to CMHC’s New Restrictions on Insured Mortgages Obtaining mortgage insurance for a home purchase is about to become more challenging on July 1, particularly for first-time buyers. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), Canada’s national mortgage insurance provider, unveiled stricter underwriting policies on Thursday for insured mortgages. The measures include: Limiting Gross Debt […]

BANK OF CANADA CUTS RATES 50 BPS TO 0.25%   Bank of Canada Moves to Restore “Financial Market Functionality” The Bank of Canada today lowered its target for the overnight rate by 50 basis points to ¼ percent. This unscheduled rate decision brings the policy rate to its effective lower bound and is intended to […]

SOLID JOBS REPORT IN CANADA AND US AHEAD OF VIRUS SPREAD Steady February Job Market Ahead of Virus Scare Job growth in Canada remained robust last month with net employment gains of 30,300 – all of which were in private-sector full-time jobs. The unemployment rate rose a tick to 5.6%, but that is still down […]

BoC’s Poloz Says Rate Cuts Will Stabilize Housing, Not Lead to “Froth” Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz attempted to ease concerns yesterday that lower interest rates will further stoke overheated housing markets. Poloz argued this week’s rate cut was needed to combat the risks posed by the current global health crisis, adding that the easing will […]

Canada’s Prime Rate Falls to 3.45% Following BoC Rate Cut Canada’s prime rate fell to 3.45% today for the first time since July 2018. This is good news for floating-rate mortgage holders and those with Home Equity Lines of Credit or regular lines of credit. And it’s all thanks to Canada’s big banks passing along […]

INTEREST RATES NOSEDIVE AS BANK OF CANADA CUTS RATES 50 BPS The Bank of Canada Brings Out The Big Guns Following yesterday’s surprise emergency 50 basis point (bp) rate cut by the Fed, the Bank of Canada followed suit today and signalled it is poised to do more if necessary. The BoC lowered its target […]

FED EMERGENCY 50 BP RATE CUT The Fed Brings Out The Big Guns In a remarkable show of force, the US Federal Reserve jumped the gun on its regularly scheduled meeting on March 18 and cut the target overnight fed funds rate by a full 50 basis points (bps) to 1%-to-1.25%. This now stands well below […]