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If your goal is to pay down your mortgage faster, or if you are thinking of breaking your mortgage early by selling your property, you'll want to know the details in your prepayment clause. This might be a paragraph of text in your mortgage agreement, or it could be abbreviated as a pair of numbers (10/20 or 20/20). Either way, it tells you how much extra you can pay on your mortgage without incurring penalties. Additional payments go directly to your principal mortgage amount, so they decrease the amount of time you will have your mortgage (the amortization) as well as saving you interest payments over time.

How much money do I need to buy a home? Where can the funds for my down payment come from?

Your down payment is one of the three main pillars that supports your mortgage application. It represents the equity you will put into the property you're buying and determines how much money you will need to borrow from a mortgage lender.

Whether you're buying your first home or your next home, it's a major decision that has both emotional and financial considerations. While you will ultimately need to decide on your own whether you will buy a home in 2022, you should have a professional team on your side that will assist you in reaching your goals.

There are a lot of reasons to buy a house with someone else. You could be:

• buying a family home with your boyfriend/girlfriend or husband/wife;
• co-signing for your grown son/daughter to assist them with their purchase;
• investing with a sibling or friend so that you can both get a foot on the property ladder.

Whatever your situation, it represents a significant investment and financial commitment for everyone involved. So what happens when you want or need to divide the asset of your house?

Saving to buy a home is more than just putting together a down payment. Even though the down payment gets all the focus and planning, there are additional costs you'll incur and need to cover. We walk you through those other costs and fees, allowing you the opportunity to both plan for them and more importantly not be surprised by the actual amount needed to pay for them.

We originally let you know in April 2021 that the mortgage stress test was going to be increasing for uninsured mortgages. The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) confirmed that as of June 1, 2021 all uninsured mortgages will be qualified at a minimum rate of 5.25%.

What Is Changing For Uninsured Mortgages?

The qualifying rate for uninsured mortgages will be the higher of: