Friday's Globe and Mail had a string of interesting, even useful, real estate articles.
"Well, of course they did", you say, "Friday is the day they publish their real estate section."
Except these better articles were all in the Report on Business section. It was so full of juicy items it took me a few days to get around to writing this up.
With the wee summaries and links below, I quickly maxed out the character limit for Facebook and Twitter ... so you get a blog post. To wit (not to Tweet)...
"Rule changes make mortgages a moving target". Opens with a statement that all the new rule tweaks make "it harder for many Canadians to get a mortgage". Followed by a bunch of reasons why the new changes and restrictions are a bad idea. Towards the end of the article we get stuff more along our thinking: that the new rules help ensure that "the goal and dream of owning a home is balanced with the ability to repay..." A broker suggests the changes affect decisions for 10-15% of buyers. If he is right, I suggest that the new changes probably influenced 90% of those people to make better decisions. In other words, there are very very few people out there who have really good reasons for a 95% mortgage amortized over 35-40 years.
"How to play the low interest-rate game". Pretty solid advice on how to take advantage of the current low interest rates without losing your mind and taking inappropriate risk. My favourite quote (though I admit there are exceptions) "If you can afford to put down only 5 per cent, you can't afford the house".
"The $600,000 question". What do you get for $600k in various parts of the country. If you are just one happy puppy on some acreage in the boonies you can get a lot of house. If you want to step outside and stroll to every imagineable cultural, recreational, and commercial attraction, think smaller.
"The long, slow flip". Cindy Wennerstrom's business is "flipping" homes but she takes an interesting middle ground between the fast buy-reno-flip and the long term investment property approaches. She argues that her approach has risk and tax advantages.
If any of those sound interesting beyond my precis, follow the links and enjoy. Comments also most welcome. Please. Somebody. Comment. On something :-)
Showing posts with label rates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rates. Show all posts
Monday, May 9, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
New app for us iPhonies (and Webbies, too)
Anybody done mortgage rate comparisons at RateSupermarket.ca? What did you think?
We haven't been serious viewers/users of the site but it reads as a fairly neutral place to get an idea of current comparable real mortgage rates. I quite like how straight forward they are about their independence and how they make money (see the "About Us" tab on their site).
How do they make money? Advertising and referrals. The advertising is clearly identified as such. And the referrals come only if you ask.
I looked at them a little more closely today because they announced an iPhone app connected to their service. It seems pretty straight forward. You could be looking at a home and start to feel that "what if I bought this" tingle. Out comes the app and tells you who wants what rate today for whatever type and term you ask about. It also has a mortgage calculator to check the actual payments. Could be handy. You don't have to actually talk to anybody or give out your information to anybody to get a solid idea of what would be involved mortgage-wise.
All that said, if you know you are house-hunting you should get pre-approved. Find a good mortgage broker (we know several) and go through the process. You will know what you can afford, you can lock in a rate, and you will be stronger at the negotiation table. It's all good.
If you're interested in real-estate related apps, you might want to have a peek at a series of earlier posts on the subject: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3
We haven't been serious viewers/users of the site but it reads as a fairly neutral place to get an idea of current comparable real mortgage rates. I quite like how straight forward they are about their independence and how they make money (see the "About Us" tab on their site).
How do they make money? Advertising and referrals. The advertising is clearly identified as such. And the referrals come only if you ask.
I looked at them a little more closely today because they announced an iPhone app connected to their service. It seems pretty straight forward. You could be looking at a home and start to feel that "what if I bought this" tingle. Out comes the app and tells you who wants what rate today for whatever type and term you ask about. It also has a mortgage calculator to check the actual payments. Could be handy. You don't have to actually talk to anybody or give out your information to anybody to get a solid idea of what would be involved mortgage-wise.
All that said, if you know you are house-hunting you should get pre-approved. Find a good mortgage broker (we know several) and go through the process. You will know what you can afford, you can lock in a rate, and you will be stronger at the negotiation table. It's all good.
If you're interested in real-estate related apps, you might want to have a peek at a series of earlier posts on the subject: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Prices: Up? Down? Sideways?
I know. I'm always writing "expert" opinions that amount to "Beats me". In these times, that seems to be what our expertise amounts to: "We know enough to know that we don't know". Might make that our new slogan.
This Globe and Mail piece, despite the headline, seems to capture it well. The Royal Bank report triggering the article takes an "on balance everything nets out and we're ok" position. If I had to pick, this is probably the position I would take.
But there remains a part of me that worries that I am just be averaging out more extreme possibilities. If one doctor says you're fine and will live to 100, and another says you are terminally ill and will be gone at 50, it is not smart to decide that it all means you will live to 75 ... "on average".
The article leads with the Royal report. But it also notes other predictions that are all currently on the table from knowledgable experts. One group predicts a 25% slide in housing prices due to bubble indicators, rising rates and high personal debt. (disturbingly, our own financial advisor loiters around some of this thinking)
Another industry group predicts continued price increases in a healthy market and economy.
The Royal decides that an improving economy will balance rising rates and we just chug along about where we are now. What do you think?
This Globe and Mail piece, despite the headline, seems to capture it well. The Royal Bank report triggering the article takes an "on balance everything nets out and we're ok" position. If I had to pick, this is probably the position I would take.
But there remains a part of me that worries that I am just be averaging out more extreme possibilities. If one doctor says you're fine and will live to 100, and another says you are terminally ill and will be gone at 50, it is not smart to decide that it all means you will live to 75 ... "on average".
The article leads with the Royal report. But it also notes other predictions that are all currently on the table from knowledgable experts. One group predicts a 25% slide in housing prices due to bubble indicators, rising rates and high personal debt. (disturbingly, our own financial advisor loiters around some of this thinking)
Another industry group predicts continued price increases in a healthy market and economy.
The Royal decides that an improving economy will balance rising rates and we just chug along about where we are now. What do you think?
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
That might work, ... if ...
The Feds have announced some changes. If everyone sees them for what they are -- and what the Feds say they are -- they should be good. They should slow you down if you were about to do something silly. But they shouldn't stop you or seriously restrict you in doing what you want to do in real estate.
The first and major change requires. you to "qualify" for your mortgage at the five-year fixed rate. So you qualify by "pretending" that you are getting a mortgage at say 4.7% (whatever the 5 year rate du jour is). Then you go ahead and grab that juicy 2.5% variable rate.
This is kind of like your government protecting you against yourself. Might make our FoxNews-watching neighbours scream "socialism" and go a little crazy. But might also make you thank them if your variable rate starts up in a year or two.
Next up, is a new limit on the maximum amount you can refinance to. It's still early and I need more details on this one, but here's what I THINK they are up to. You can still go 95% mortgage when you buy a house. But, when your mortgage comes up for renewal, you have to get to at least 10% equity/90% mortgage. Why?
They are trying to encourage building up a safety cushion of equity. Presumably they are also discouraging a few folks who have lots of equity but are tempted to borrow back the whole wad in order to "buy themselves something frilly". For example, say you think it's time to buy some stocks or a snazzy cottage, etc. -- Well, fine, just don't risk absolutely everything on some delusion that interest rates will nudge zero forever and real estate will go endlessly and uninterruptibly up. ("Uninterruptibly"???)
Third is the one that I hope won't turn into one of those things that shows up in the headlines with the explanation continued on page 6. Headline: MINIMUM 20% DOWN"... page 6: "if you are buying a place for speculation/investment/rental income". In other words for 95% of you, it doesn't change anything.
First take. If I screwed it up, you can tell me. Or I'll post clarifications, corrections and apologies later.
The first and major change requires. you to "qualify" for your mortgage at the five-year fixed rate. So you qualify by "pretending" that you are getting a mortgage at say 4.7% (whatever the 5 year rate du jour is). Then you go ahead and grab that juicy 2.5% variable rate.
This is kind of like your government protecting you against yourself. Might make our FoxNews-watching neighbours scream "socialism" and go a little crazy. But might also make you thank them if your variable rate starts up in a year or two.
Next up, is a new limit on the maximum amount you can refinance to. It's still early and I need more details on this one, but here's what I THINK they are up to. You can still go 95% mortgage when you buy a house. But, when your mortgage comes up for renewal, you have to get to at least 10% equity/90% mortgage. Why?
They are trying to encourage building up a safety cushion of equity. Presumably they are also discouraging a few folks who have lots of equity but are tempted to borrow back the whole wad in order to "buy themselves something frilly". For example, say you think it's time to buy some stocks or a snazzy cottage, etc. -- Well, fine, just don't risk absolutely everything on some delusion that interest rates will nudge zero forever and real estate will go endlessly and uninterruptibly up. ("Uninterruptibly"???)
Third is the one that I hope won't turn into one of those things that shows up in the headlines with the explanation continued on page 6. Headline: MINIMUM 20% DOWN"... page 6: "if you are buying a place for speculation/investment/rental income". In other words for 95% of you, it doesn't change anything.
First take. If I screwed it up, you can tell me. Or I'll post clarifications, corrections and apologies later.
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