Top 20 Factors That May Affect Your Mortgage Approval

If there's one thing our team of mortgage planners has learned from their years of experience, it's that no two mortgages are the same. Even if, on the surface, you think that your situation matches your neighbor, friend, co-worker or parent, it doesn't take much digging to start finding differences. Since you're not "just like Dave" why would your financing be the same? We believe that your mortgage solution should be as unique as you.

Vancouver Foreign Home Buyer Tax Amended

The B.C. government is planning to lift the levy on foreign home buyers in Vancouver for those who have a work permit and pay taxes in the province. Originally implemented in August 2016, the 15% foreign home buyer tax had an immediate impact of reducing the number of real estate transactions involving foreign buyers. In Metro Vancouver, there were 1,974 deals involving foreign buyers from June 10 through August 1, 2016. In the remaining month of August 2016 there were only 60 transactions; the volume has slowly recovered and there were 200 transactions during November 2016.

BC HOME Partnership Loan: Are you ready?

Applications for the B.C. government's Home Owner Mortgage and Equity Partnership program open today, January 16, 2017. If you're an eligible first-time home buyer, do you have your documents in order?

BC HOME Partnership Loan: What will I pay?

The B.C. government's Home Owner Mortgage and Equity Partnership program, launching January 16, 2017, might seem almost too good to be true. The provincial government will match the down payment for eligible first-time home buyers to a maximum of 5% of the purchase price, up to a $750,000 property. This loan will be interest- and payment-free for the first five years.

BC HOME Partnership Loan: Am I eligible?

The B.C. government's Home Owner Mortgage and Equity Partnership program, launching January 16, 2017, is meant to assist first-time home buyers cover part of the cost of a mortgage down payment. There some nuances to the eligibility criteria that you will want to keep in mind:

Should the BC Foreign Buyer Tax Expand Beyond Vancouver?

Victoria is now second only to Richmond in the number of residential real estate transactions in this province involving foreign buyers. According to data from October, 6.3% of the sales in the Capital Regional District were to non-residents. This volume is almost double the amount of September transactions.

Mortgage Forecast 2017: Situation and Location

Over the past few weeks, we've heard some pretty scary terms being tossed about regarding the housing market: Canada is in a housing boom – bubble – bust; the market is softening, deflating, freefalling, crashing. The truth is that the federal government's new mortgage qualifying regulations introduced a lot of uncertainty into the market. Many folks are calling us with one question on their minds, "Should I buy now or wait?"