Mortgage Concierge – Guelph Real Estate Mortgages

A recent NAR in the U.S. (National Association of Realtors) survey listed the 4 most important things consumers look for in their real estate agent. In no particular order, here are the 4 most important factors that consumers use when deciding on who to use to help them find a home or sell a home:
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The Bank of Canada has left its overnight lending rate unchanged, which means the Prime Rate will remain the same and Variable Rate mortgage holders will continue to enjoy their current (low) mortgage rate.
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The bond yields are up a bit this week, which some people think might push fixed rates up a bit. While a rising bond yield does normally put pressure on the fixed rates to go up we also need to remember what happened with mortgage rates while the bond yields were going down. Most recently, as bond yields were dropping the similar term mortgage rates didn’t move down with them in lock-step. This makes it possible for the lenders to leave fixed mortgage rates alone for now.
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With the sweeping mortgage reforms that have taken place in the past 2 years most people think that they need to have at least 10% of their purchase price saved up for the down payment. Although the actual rule is that buyers need at least 5% for the down payment, it is a little known fact that they don’t need to have saved that money.

Yes, you read that right. You don’t have to have the 5% saved up. Here are a couple of options for people who don’t have the 5% saved:
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For those who thought that things were getting better in the USA, have a look at these sobering numbers: The median sale price for resale homes is down more than 5% compared to last year; distressed sales accounted for more than 31% of all transactions; and depending on the source there are anywhere between 3 and 4 million homes that will hit the market as foreclosures in the next 18 months.
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It’s incredible what fear and the unknown can do to people. You take an otherwise rational person, and tell them that their life savings is at risk of evaporating because the U.S. might default on their debt, and what do they do? They go out and buy U.S. T-bills. Talk about not making much sense: If they really believed the U.S. was going to default on its debt, this means the U.S. Government can’t make the payments on the T-Bills, so why invest in any U.S. Government debt instruments? It’s nuts…
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Government spending, both federally and provincially, will revert from having driven one-third of growth in 2010 to subtracting nearly 1% off growth by 2012. That’s a huge swing, and one reason why the Bank of Canada has been so hesitant to raise interest rates. Other reasons include a tepid US economy and strong Canadian dollar. Read More (PDF Download)

Every once in a while opportunity seems to come knocking on our doors. Most of the time it goes unnoticed and other times it seems, that the opportunity is actually a threat. Every few years that opportunity is actually a big one.

Consider the recent crash in the stock market: There’s a lot of people running to the safety of the bond market, or cashing out. What a shame! If you don’t need this money for more than 10 years you really should be buying these undervalued stocks. And if you need the money in less than 10 years, you need to ask yourself why you were in the stock market in the first place. But I digress….
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As anticipated, the Bank of Canada left rates unchanged Tuesday. Due to an uncertain future for the economies in Europe, a USA trading partner who is struggling to keep its economy afloat, and an overall global recession that doesn’t seem to want to go away, it is no wonder that they are taking a “wait and see” approach.
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It’s quite amazing that the President of the USA makes a plea to government officials to raise the debt limit in order to meet its debt obligations due August 2nd and the media is focusing more on the sale of Nortel patents. In the simplest of terms, Obama is telling people that the U.S. will default on its debt obligations in less than a month unless the government there agrees to increase the amount it can borrow.
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