Mortgage Minute September 2020

Welcome Crystal to The Hometown Financial Team!

Crystal is our newest addition to the team, joining to help us with our new office in Chatham and our office in Woodstock. With Crystal's social skills, and customer service experience, she is here to help make the mortgage process a smooth, enjoyable process.

Can't wait to see what else is ahead as we continue to grow, and work to provide the best experience possible!

Don’t Let These Unexpected Closing Costs Catch You Off Guard

First-time homebuyers are often on a tight budget, where every dollar is carefully accounted for. Yet, many report confusion when told how much money to bring to their lawyer’s office to complete their home purchase. It’s often thousands more than they expected. Why is that? And how can you better prepare yourself?

Today we will focus on the three biggest items that come up quite frequently as unexpected costs: property tax adjustments; mortgage interest adjustments; and PST on mortgage-default insurance. We don’t count items like land transfer taxes because they are (mostly) expected.

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CMHC CEO’s letter ruffles feathers as bankers say stricter mortgage rules could dash first-time homebuyers' hopes

In the letter, Siddall expressed disappointment that private market mortgage insurers did not follow CMHC’s lead of tightening standards on July 1 to curtail excess borrowing in uncertain times, and noted the Crown insurer was now ceding market share to these competitors.

Privately, some bankers said they are concerned Siddall’s stated intent of trying to protect Canada’s housing market and economy by reining in mortgage lending could backfire by interfering with demand by first-time homebuyers. Lenders are counting on new homebuyers, at least in part, to help offset defaults on the horizon once government-sponsored pandemic relief including wage replacement and subsidies for lost work winds down.

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