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Posted by: Garth Chapman
What Direction are Interest Rates Headed, and what should we do? Context – Let’s first look at the key elements and actions driving interest rates and economic activity right now Liquidity crisis Remember 2008. The capital markets dried up and the huge gaps had to be filled. Now is similar but with an entirely non-economic cause. […]
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As Dr. Cooper writes below this is a time of enormous change and challenge. Yet I find myself surprised and pleased with the responses from our federal government, and from the Alberta government, as well as several other Provinces and Municipalities. The programs announced as of March 29 are breath-taking in scope and breadth. We […]
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Aside from one’s own personal sense of obligations to those in need, I believe that society as a whole bears the obligation to help those in need, at all times, and most especially in extraordinarily challenging times. At this time a very great many Canadians are in need. The Federal & Provincial governments are honouring […]
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Fixed Vs Variable – How to decide…which way to go? The choice between Fixed and Variable interest rate is one that many borrowers ask about. This is a very common question and you are not alone. First, let’s help you to understand the differences between the two types of mortgages. A Variable Rate Mortgage is […]
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From a recent Robert McLister article in the Globe And Mail. Committing to a mortgage for five long years exposes people to the most insidious aspect of residential financing: prepayment charges. And when it comes to such charges – the penalties you pay come when you back out of your mortgage early – some lenders […]
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On November 27, 2019, the Government of Alberta released revised Regulations and Amendments to the Alberta Condominium Property Act that will come into force January 1, 2020. The revisions to the prior draft regulation includes adding to the list of qualified reserve fund study providers; adjusting the fee scale for the provision of documents; clarifying recoverability of an […]
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There has been a lot of talk about housing lately: the impact of regulations such as the “stress test”; the effect on millennials; the level of household debt in Canada and its potential impact on our economy. Over the past year, the Canadian Real Estate Association commissioned research into housing affordability. We looked at the […]
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With a growing number of first-time homebuyers frozen out of the market by the stress test, many builders have cut back on building. Governments bear much of the blame for this undesirable market imbalance, as a narrow focus on suppressing household debt has dominated the policy mix while the root causes of undersupply — including […]
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In the USA 15-year and 30-year mortgage terms are very common. So why not in Canada? Is it that there is less banking competition, or are there other forces at play? Longer-term mortgages would benefit Canadian homebuyers by bringing more stability to the homebuying process, says a recent brief from the C.D. Howe Institute. In […]
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Fort McMurray has topped a ranking of the world’s most affordable housing markets. The Alberta city leads affordability in the 2020 Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey which rates middle-income housing affordability using the “Median Multiple,” which is the median house price divided by the median household income; a score of 2 would mean it takes twice the […]
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