Christine Buemann Mortgage Broker

When the new federal budget came in about a month ago we discussed two things: 1. The first being that the governance of CMHC was being moved from the human resources department to the Office of the Superintendant of Financial Institutions (OSFI). Essentially control of CHMC was being moved so that the financial department could have direct audit and control of its policies and programs. 2. Due to CMHC increasing its portfolio insurance holdings (insuring mortgages for banks at less than 80% loan to value), the media created uninformed and overblown fears about the amount of mortgages insured by CMHC. CMHC is nearing its limit of total amount of mortgages it is permitted to insure, forcing lenders to expand their insurance relationships with Genworth and Canada Guaranty. The speculation was that the government, due to CMHC's low portfolio loan to value would increase its insurance limit. So, the news: It looks like Jim Flaherty is moving quickly to sink his claws into CMHC...

If you are using a non-bank lender for your mortgage, you may notice that your mortgage has been registered in the name of “Computershare Trust Company of Canada”. This registration does not affect the terms and conditions of your mortgage in any way. Computershare holds no beneficial interest or rights to the mortgage loan. This is merely a third party, custodial arrangement which means that your lender has used Computershare to review the mortgage and provide custodial certification to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp (CMHC) for their government securities program. Computershare is the largest provider globally of many of the services they offer and the largest corporate trust service provider in Canada. They have successfully provided this custodial service to many Canadian bank and non-bank lenders for many years and they play a very important role in the Government of Canada’s NHA Mortgage-Backed Securities Program. Computershare has served as the exclusive Central Payor and Tr...

The Bank of Canada met today and decided to keep their target overnight rate at 1%. In turn, bank's prime lending rate will remain at 3%. http://www.bankofcanada.ca/monetary-policy-introduction/key-interest-rate/ www.christinebuemann.com

Is it possible to get a mortgage with little to no down payment saved? The simple answer is yes. Here is how it works… There are several lenders who will give you between 1-5.5% of your mortgage amount back at closing to use towards your down payment. The interest rate will get higher with the percentage of cash that is being given back in order for the lender to recover the funds being given to you at closing. If you were to use the maximum cash-back, here is a sample breakdown of what it could look like*: $200,000 purchase price -$ 10,000 minimum 5% down payment +$ 5,605 default insurance premium = $195,605 total mortgage amount The amount of cash back being given is 5.5% of the total mortgage amount and would therefore be $10,758.28. The one thing to take note of when entering into a cash-back mortgage is that if you break the contract term earlier then the time you have committed to, the lender may “claw-back” all or a portion of the cash that was initially give...

British Columbians show high rate of confidence in homeownership VANCOUVER, April 5, 2012 — British Columbians are narrowly divided when asked whether it makes more sense to buy a house now (52 per cent) or wait until next year(48 per cent), given current housing prices and economic conditions, according to the 19th Annual RBC Homeownership Poll. While an overwhelming majority (85 per cent) say real estate is a good investment (compared to 88 per cent nationally), two-thirds of prospective homebuyers in B.C. (66 per cent) say they are not likely to buy a home within the next two years, well below the national average (73 per cent). “B.C.’s housing market has experienced some of the strongest price increases in Canada over the past few years, so it makes sense that buyers are taking their time to decide if they should buy now or wait,” said Inde Sumal, regional vice-president, Residential Mortgages, RBC. “But confidence in homeownership is very high in the province, demonstrat...

The hot topic of last week was of course the Federal budget. Below are some key changes taken from the budget, as well as some great links to some articles that explain the budget in more detail. The budget will: • Gradually raise the age of eligibility for Old Age Security from 65 to 67 beginning in 2023. • Contain no new taxes or tax increases. • Tell consumers to complain directly to food companies about product labeling. • Eliminate the penny. • Eliminate 19,200 government jobs over three years, including 600 senior executives and 7,200 through attrition. • Reform regulation in the resource industry, including amending the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. • Allow Canadians to claim more goods duty-free at the border. The limit after 24 hours goes from $50 to $200. • Cap EI premium rate increases to 5 cents a year until the fund is balanced again. • Cut $2.1 billion from the Department of National Defense over the next three years. • Cut funding to the CBC by 10 pe...