Don’t bite off more mortgage than you can chew

Financial Post-How much money do you really need to buy a house?

Based on the average sale price of $320,333 last year, the federal government says you must come up with about $16,000 before you can consider getting a mortgage to buy the rest of that home.

Current rules require mortgage insurance for anyone borrowing more than 80% of the value of their home from financial institutions covered by the Bank Act. Under the rules, consumers must have at least 5% down and cannot amortize their payments over a period of more than 35 years.

Those stipulations came after Ottawa’s supposed crackdown on the housing sector which had allowed zero down mortgages and 40-year amortizations….

Don’t bite off more mortgage than you can chew

Housing may be leading Canada’s economic recovery

Financial Post- New-home prices rose 0.4% in November for the fifth consecutive monthly gain, Statistics Canada says, adding to growing evidence housing is leading Canada’s economic recovery. Analysts surveyed by Reuters had forecast, on average, a 0.3% hike in the new-home price index. Prices fell 1.4% from a year earlier.

On a monthly basis, the housing-only component of the index rose 0.5% while the cost of land-only component edged up 0.2%…

Housing may be leading Canada’s economic recovery

Bank of Canada likes prospects for recovery

The Globe and Mail-  The Bank of Canada  is expressing greater confidence that the global recovery will pick up steam and endure, while warning that unemployment will fall only slowly and that the rebound depends on measures to cut debt in advanced economies and to boost consumer spending in Asia.

Growth in Canada, the United States and other countries is expected to surpass the Bank of Canada’s previous hopes over the next year, the central bank said in its quarterly Monetary Policy Report yesterday, leading some economists to suggest interest rates will begin rising again in July, if not earlier, though some believe that will happen later in the year.

"This report is clearly a much more optimistic report, increasing the probability of the Bank of Canada moving as early as July," said Benjamin Tal, a senior economist at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce…

Bank of Canada likes prospects for recovery – The Globe and Mail

Renovation tax credit to end, Flaherty confirms

Financial Post- Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said he has no plans to extend a $3-billion home renovation tax credit that expires at the end of this month…

Renovation tax credit to end, Flaherty confirms

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