Found 61 blog entries tagged as mortgage.

How do you buy a home

What are the steps to buying a home? You’re starting to think about becoming a homeowner, or maybe you’ve even started to look at listings. Either way, you likely have lots of questions, from the general “how tos” to specific queries around financing, different home types and locations, to how to make an offer. To help simplify what can be a complicated process, we’ve outlined the steps to buying a house in Canada.

What Are the Steps to Buying a Home?

There’s a lot to do, but we’ve narrowed it down. Here’s our 10-step home buying process checklist to get you started!

1. Choose a real estate agent that’s right for you.

A home is a huge investment, so work with a realtor that’s knowledgeable, professional and…

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Renovation mortgage financing

The good news is that you’ve found your dream home. The bad news is it’s a bit of a fixer-upper. You’ve saved for the down payment but do not have the money to undertake the necessary renovations. Fear not, homebuyer! There are many options available to help you finance the renovations, so you can stop dreaming and start enjoying your new home.

How to pay for renovations when buying a home

Renovation mortgage financing is one of the most popular renovation financing options for new homebuyers. It allows you to add renovation costs to your mortgage when you purchase your new home. So if your mortgage was $500,000 to cover the purchase price and you needed $60,000 for the renovations, you would assume a mortgage of…

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Despite the coronavirus pandemic leading to a so-called Great Resignation that has produced a labour shortage in North America and Europe, fewer Canadians are embracing entrepreneurship, bucking the growing trend south of the border. Before the global health crisis, there were close to 2.9 million self-employed Canadians. Today, Statistics Canada data show a little more than 2.6 million self-employed folks, with losses situated throughout multiple industries, including professional and technical services. It turns out that these folks have transitioned to paid full-time employment. It is a grind for the rest of the self-employed class, but it is also liberating. Of course, that feeling may not be the same when it comes to gathering credit and applying…

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First-Time Home Buyer Incentive

Over the last two years, a new trend has formed in many parts of the Canadian real estate market: investors accounting for a considerable portion of the broader housing sector.

Indeed, with many investors purchasing single-family homes, acquiring townhomes and scooping up condominium suites, a chance at home ownership has become a challenge for many first-time homebuyers. Moreover, in an environment with little supply, the competition for residential properties was exacerbated by individuals or corporations adding to their vast inventory of homes.

Public policymakers have tried to intervene, but industry experts maintain that the only real solution is to build more housing. Until then, it seems that the Bank of Canada’s…

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Regardless of where you’re buying or the market conditions, there’s one thing every homebuyer has in common: you have to make an offer to purchase a home. Whether you’re still in the browsing stages or have started to put your plan into action, as a prospective buyer, it is wise to do some legwork and gain insight into the process of making an offer. While your real estate agent is there to guide you, the more you know about the home-buying process, the smoother it will be. A smooth process is especially pivotal in a seller’s market, where you’ll need to act fast and take quick and decisive action when you find a property that interests you. This makes understanding how to make an offer on a house essential.

How to Make an…

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Bank of Canada Interest Rate Announcement: Supersized Rate Hike of 100 Basis Points on July 13

The Bank of Canada was widely expected to make an increase in this morning’s interest rate announcement, but the central bank surprised everyone with a supersized hike of 100 basis points, bringing its target for the overnight rate up to 2.5 per cent. This is the Bank’s biggest move since 1998, and the fourth in a series of increases expected for 2022 as the Bank tries to tamp down the soaring inflation rate. Inflation is expected to hover around eight per cent for the next few months – well above the Bank’s two-per-cent target.

  1. What is the Bank of Canada’s current policy interest rate?
  2. When does the Bank of Canada announce its overnight rate?
    3. …

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Canadians have enjoyed low interest rates for the last decade, but even more so since the onset of the global pandemic, when the Bank of Canada responded with a trio of rate cuts, bringing us to 0.25%. But 2022 has already seen three interest rate hikes in response to soaring inflation rates, which reached a 39-year high in May, at 7.7 per cent. With a fourth increase in the Bank’s interest rate, you may be wondering: How will higher interest rates affect me?

What does an interest rate hike mean if you’re planning to buy a home, if you already have a mortgage, or are carrying any other debt? Let’s take a step back to better understand what causes movement in interest rates and how a higher rate might impact you.

What Causes Interest Rates to…

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Buying a home is no easy task. It’s likely the biggest investment you’ll ever make in your lifetime and there are so many things you need to take into consideration, like where you should live, how much you can afford to spend, and when the right time to move is. 

These are just some of the questions that buyers need answers to—and truthfully, just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to buying a home. With the help of a REALTOR®, you’ll be able to answer these questions for yourself and get a better sense of what the home buying journey looks like for you.

We asked a few REALTORS® for some of the advice they give to home buyers, whether it’s their first home or they’re downsizing, to help them feel more confident in the process. 

When is…

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Canadian real estate with luxury homes

Are the effects of the Bank of Canada’s (BoC) tightening cycle being felt in the Canadian real estate market?

For at least two years and probably longer than that, the nation’s housing market has been sizzling, with nearly every pocket of the country experiencing soaring prices and impressive sales activity. The laws of supply and demand have been in full force since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic – inventory is low and demand has been strong – but historically low interest rates have also played a significant role.

When rates are low, prospective homeowners can take advantage of monetary conditions to increase their purchasing power and outcompete other buyers who may be interested in the same property. Now…

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