A common misconception among people about taking out a mortgage is that they can’t qualify. Someone who has a job and pays bills on time is likely eligible for home financing.
Part of that is getting pre-approved, which means talking to an independent broker or a bank representative about how large a loan you can get before looking for a dream home.
This saves time for everyone and prevents a lot of frustrations down the road. Along with the loan amount, a pre-approval also guarantees an interest rate for 90 to 120 days.
The mortgage industry generates about $200 billion in loans across the country every year, financing home purchases and other real-estate undertakings.
Independent brokers, who are different from employees of financial institutions like banks and credit unions, have about a 30-percent share of the market. As a sector, the number of independent mortgage brokers, who have access to both institutional and nontraditional lenders, has grown over the years.
Mortgage debt among households nationwide rose 1.4 percent to $1.17 trillion in the second quarter of 2014, according to a Statistics Canada report. The value of household real estate increased at a faster rate than mortgage debt. This is according to a StatsCan report released on September 12, 2014.
Since 2010, the Bank of Canada has kept interest rates in the country relatively low.
Economic conditions should remain stable for 2015, which means low interest rates will prevail. As to the perpetual question of choosing between a fixed- and variable-rate mortgage, I believe It’s a good time to go for both.