New mortgage rules target select few

Financial Post- The new mortgage rules coming into effect April 19 may prevent some cashless couples from buying a house until they can muster a 10% down payment, but they have largely drawn a yawn from the real estate industry. The real target? Real estate investors, who will now have to come up with a 20% down payment to take on their next property or be forced to buy mortgage insurance.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said as much in announcing the changes. "The measures will not affect the ability of a Canadian family to buy a house. It will affect those who are speculating," Flaherty said. "What we’re getting at is the speculation in multiple condominium units in particular which we see in Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto and in some other places in Canada…"

New mortgage rules target select few

Resale home prices rise for seventh straight month

Financial Post- Canadian home resale prices rose for a seventh straight month in November on gains in all six major metropolitan markets surveyed, a report released on Wednesday says.

The Teranet-National Bank composite house price index, which measures price changes for repeat sales of single-family homes, showed overall prices were up 0.8% in November from October.

Vancouver led the gains, rising 1.9%, the only market to exceed the national average. Without Vancouver, the composite index would have been up 0.5%, the report said. Toronto and Calgary both recorded gains of 0.6% in November, followed by 0.4% increases in each of Halifax and Ottawa. Montreal posted the smallest rise, up 0.1%…

Resale home prices rise for seventh straight month