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Dominion Lending Centres Wins Big at CMP Awards
2010-04-30 | 13:52:34
Vancouver BC - Brent Irving - Dominion Lending Centres dominated the CMP Canadian Mortgage Awards on Friday, April 23rd at Toronto's Liberty Grand – walking away with five prestigious national awards!
Dominion Lending Centres took home top prizes for Mortgage Brokerage of the Year, Best Branding and Best Advertising. Meanwhile, one of our veteran broker/owners, Gary Meger, Neighbourhood Dominion Lending Centres in Barrie, ON, won Mortgage Broker of the Year. Finally, the Business Development Manager for our extensive white label Dominion Mortgage line of products, Cynthia Kramer, won Lender BDM of the Year!
“We are absolutely honoured that our industry peers and partners, as well as an esteemed panel of judges recognized Dominion Lending Centres with these incredible awards,” says Gary Mauris, President of Dominion Lending Centres.
“We will continue to provide our more than 1,700 brokers and agents across the country with value-added tools and services to ensure we remain on top, and are the company of choice for Canadian mortgage consumers,” Mauris adds.
This is the second consecutive year Dominion Lending Centres has captured the Best Branding award. Dominion Lending Centres is the only mortgage brokerage in Canada that has an advertising fund to ensure we gain access to households across the country via advertising – our main advertising vehicle being Television.
If you haven't yet noticed an upsurge in Dominion Lending Centres TV commercials, you soon will! This month and next, we have an increased presence across the country on News and Sports programming, culminating in an astounding 12.2 Million additional viewer impressions in the key demographic of consumers between the ages of 25 and 54! This is on top of the more than 240 Million viewer impressions we will make this year.
Earlier this month, six new Dominion Lending Centres commercials began airing across Canada. The key message follows a theme that interest rates are still near historic lows, and encourages viewers to contact a Dominion Lending Centres mortgage professional through our main website – www.DominionLending.ca – when purchasing a new home, or renewing or refinancing an existing mortgage.
Brent Irving
Your friend in the mortgage business!
604-764-6336
Understanding Your Credit Bureau
2010-04-22 | 11:45:52
As credit has become more and more abundant in our society, your credit report, and thus your credit rating, has become more important in your daily life. Your credit rating affects all aspects of your financial activities when it comes to borrowing money. Your credit rating also has the ability to affect the job you get, the apartment you rent, and even the ability to open a bank account.
Your credit report itself is simply a listing of all of your mortgage and consumer debt. Here in Canada, the two main credit reporting agencies are Trans Union and Equifax. Both agencies have a credit history file on anyone who has ever borrowed money. Every time you borrow money, or make a payment on a loan or credit card, the lender then reports the information about the transaction to these two agencies. In addition to credit information, you will also find liens and judgments on your credit report as well as your address and possibly your work history. The accumulation of all of this information is called your credit report.
The information on your credit report varies based on your creditors and what they have reported about you. Potential lenders and others, such as employers, view your credit history as a reflection of your character. Whether we like it or not, our financial habits have a lot to say about the way in which we choose to live our lives.
The credit score, or beacon score, is a number which gives mortgage lenders an idea of your lending risk.
Credit scores range from 300 to 900, the higher your credit score the better. The mortgage products and interest rate that you will qualify for are often determined by your credit score.
One thing that many people do not know is that you have the legal right to obtain a copy of your credit report. A mortgage professional can help you obtain a copy of this report and go through it with you to verify that all of the information is true and correct.
The good news is that your credit report is a working document. This means that you have the ability over time, to repair any damaged credit and increase your credit score.
Your Friend in the Mortgage Business!
604-764-6336
Bank of Canada Keeps Rates Unchanged
2010-04-20 | 11:56:56
Key point: Bank of Canada keeps the prime rate unchanged at 1/4 percent.
VANCOUVER BC —The Bank of Canada today announced that it is maintaining its target for the overnight rate at 1/4 per cent. The Bank Rate is unchanged at 1/2 per cent and the deposit rate is 1/4 per cent.
Global economic growth has been somewhat stronger than projected, with momentum in emerging-market economies increasing noticeably. Exceptional stimulus from monetary and fiscal policies continues to provide important support in many countries. The recovery in the major advanced economies is still expected to be relatively subdued, reflecting ongoing balance sheet adjustments and the gradual withdrawal of fiscal stimulus commencing later this year. Despite recent progress, considerable uncertainty remains about the durability of the global recovery.
In Canada, the economic recovery is proceeding somewhat more rapidly than the Bank had projected in its January Monetary Policy Report (MPR). The profile for growth is more front-loaded than that presented in the January MPR. The Bank now projects that the economy will grow by 3.7 per cent in 2010 before slowing to 3.1 per cent in 2011 and 1.9 per cent in 2012.
This profile reflects stronger near-term global growth, very strong housing activity in Canada, and the Bank’s assessment that policy stimulus resulted in more expenditures being brought forward in late 2009 and early 2010 than expected. At the same time, the persistent strength of the Canadian dollar, Canada’s poor relative productivity performance, and the low absolute level of U.S. demand will continue to act as significant drags on economic activity in Canada. The Bank expects the economy to return to full capacity in the second quarter of 2011.
The outlook for inflation reflects the combined influences of stronger domestic demand, slowing wage growth, and overall excess supply. Core inflation, which has been somewhat firmer than projected in January, is expected to ease slightly in the second quarter of 2010 as the effect of temporary factors dissipates, and to remain near 2 per cent throughout the rest of the projection period. Total CPI inflation is expected to be slightly higher than 2 per cent over the coming year, before returning to the target in the second half of 2011.
In response to the sharp, synchronous global recession, the Bank lowered its target rate rapidly over the course of 2008 and early 2009 to its lowest possible level. With its conditional commitment introduced in April 2009, the Bank also provided exceptional guidance on the likely path of its target rate. This unconventional policy provided considerable additional stimulus during a period of very weak economic conditions and major downside risks to the global and Canadian economies. With recent improvements in the economic outlook, the need for such extraordinary policy is now passing, and it is appropriate to begin to lessen the degree of monetary stimulus. The extent and timing will depend on the outlook for economic activity and inflation, and will be consistent with achieving the 2 per cent inflation target.
In accordance with the removal of the conditional commitment, there will be no additional term Purchase and Resale Agreements issued by the Bank.
Information note:
A full update of the Bank’s outlook for the economy and inflation, including risks to the projection, will be published in the MPR on 22 April 2010. The next scheduled date for announcing the overnight rate target is 1 June 2010.
Brent Irving
Your friend in the mortgage business.
Phone: 604-764-6336
When Will The Bank of Canada Start Raising rates?
2010-04-15 | 13:33:19
By Julian Beltrame, The Canadian Press
OTTAWA — The Bank of Canada has yet to officially start hiking interests rates, but already Canadians are feeling the impact of higher borrowing costs.
Analysts say expectations the central bank will boost rates June 1 at the earliest and July 20 at the latest have boosted the Canadian loonie and pushed the big banks to twice raise mortgage rates in the past two weeks.
The loonie has been steadily gaining ground for weeks and Wednesday closed above parity, at 100.08 cents U.S., for the first time in almost two years.But economists warn there is danger in the Bank of Canada moving ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve on hiking rates, even if it is justified by the fundamentals.
“The Bank of Canada is basically going to fly solo,” said Benjamin Tal, an economist with CIBC World Markets.“The markets are already discounting 75, maybe 100 basis points and it’s already in the price of the dollar.”
Canada’s economy has sprinted forward following last year’s recession to record a five per cent advance in the fourth quarter of 2009, and expectations are the first quarter will show an even quicker pace.
More importantly, Canada has recouped nearly half of the total job losses of the downturn, while the United States still struggles with the disappearance of 8.5 million jobs, a decimated housing market and a financial sector still hobbled by an excessive overhang of debt.
In testimony to Congress on Wednesday, Fed chair Ben Bernanke suggested it will be some time before the U.S. starts raising the policy rate from the current near-zero emergency stance.
“The Federal Open Market Committee has stated clearly that they currently anticipate that very low, extremely low rates will be needed for an extended period,” Bernanke told a Congressional committee.
Economists say moving ahead of the U.S. — which is all but certain — could have some beneficial effects, such as cooling what many believe is an overheated housing market by making mortgage costs higher.
But the bigger problem is that higher rates attract more foreign capital into Canada and gives an additional lift to the loonie, something few, except for possibly cross-border shoppers, want.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Wednesday that the strong loonie is a reflection of the relative strength of the Canadian and U.S. economies.
While true, said Liberal critic John McCallum, a former bank economist, there is a risk in raising rates while the U.S. keeps theirs low.
“Then our dollar could get even stronger and that would be really bad for exports and jobs,” he said.
While some analysts have speculated that Canada’s manufacturing sector is no longer as exposed by a strong currency as a decade ago, few disagree with the notion that currency appreciation is a net negative for the economy.
This week’s trade numbers showed the rebound is almost all due to energy, while the goods side registered a $4.4 billion deficit in February.
Carl Weinberg of U.S.-based High Frequency Economists was not impressed.
“You might think that the largest supplier of crude oil to the United States would be able to run a bigger surplus,” said Weinberg. “Blame the strong loonie for a lot of the woes of exporters, especially since so much of what Canada sells is priced in U.S. dollars.”
Given the signals the bank has sent, it would take a major reversal in the recent spate of good economic news, as well as easing inflationary pressures, to stay the central bank’s hand on rates.
However, Sheryl King, chief economist with Merrill Lynch in Canada, says she does not believe governor Mark Carney will get too ahead of the curve and will keep the increases modest.
She says the economy may be hot now, but she sees it cooling in the second half of the year, and Carney putting on his brakes until the Fed shows signs of joining him on the policy tightening track. http://news.therecord.com/Business/article/698287
Brent Irving 604-764-6336
Mortgage Expert
Special Offers on fixed interest rate mortgage rates available at TD Canada Trust
2010-03-22 | 11:17:22
- 7-year fixed rate special 4.65%
- 10-year fixed rate special 4.99%
VANCOUVER, March 22 /brentirving.ca/ - TD Canada Trust is lowering its residential mortgage interest rates on the 7 and 10 year terms, effective March 23, 2010.
"We're excited to present more choices for our customers with attractive special offers on our seven and ten year fixed rate mortgages. With the possibility of interest rates increasing in the future, more and more borrowers are looking for additional security and are considering fixed interest rates and longer terms. Knowing that your interest rate and payment amount won't change over the next 7 or 10 years could give you that extra peace of mind you're looking for'," said Chris Wisniewski, Associate Vice President, Real Estate Secured Lending, TD Canada Trust.
Locking into a longer term mortgage is one option to consider, but borrowers have other options too, and coupled with the right advice, they can manage their debt load and save money at the same time.
"TD has a full range of mortgage products to meet the various needs of our customers, but it's also important for homebuyers to do the research, talk to experts and ask the right questions to help figure out their needs, what they can afford and which financing option is best for them. That could be a ten year fixed rate mortgage, a five year variable rate product or something entirely different," added Wisniewski
The changes are as follows:
Fixed Rates* To: Change:
--------------
7-year closed 5.99% -0.31%
10-year closed 6.30% -0.20%
Special Fixed Rate Offers
-------------------------
7-year closed 4.65% -0.30%
10-year closed 4.99% -0.21%
*Rates calculated semi-annually, not in advance.
Special rate are at a discount to TD Canada Trust's posted rates
And for those that can't make it into their local branch to speak to one of our representatives, TD Canada Trust has a team of Mobile Mortgage Specialists who are available outside of normal banking hours to discuss the full range of mortgage options at a time and place that is convenient.
Brent Irving
604-764-6336
Consumer complaints about mortgage penalties pile up
2010-03-17 | 19:31:26
The Bank of Canada's record-low interest rates have been in place for almost a year and during that time, consumer complaints about mortgage prepayment penalties have been steadily rising.
A story in the Globe and Mail says the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments (OBSI) has opened 301 new consumer complaints in the quarter that ended in January, which is twice the number seen in the same quarter last year and almost triple the number seen in 2008.
Hein Moes, an Invis broker in Victoria, says lenders will not bend on interest rate differential (IRD) penalties when interest rates are so low, causing many clients to opt out of refinancing for a better rate.
"I don't know when we're going to see some release in that department," said Moes. "If you can't save your penalty before the original maturity date of the mortgage, then you really have to have a hard look at whether you want to do it or not. And even if you take the best discounted deal with the same lender, they're going to want to see compensation from that."
In the latest federal budget, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said he will standardize how prepayment penalties are calculated and disclosed to consumers, but details have not yet been revealed.
Douglas Melville, the head of the OBSI, told the Globe in most cases the lender's disclosure is clear, but there are some instances when the customer's argument has legs.
"At the moment, we have about a dozen case files still open where some form of compensation is likely to result," Melville said. "We believe compensation is warranted due to a lack of clear disclosure by the firm of the prepayment penalty calculation."
Brent Irving
Your friend in the mortgage business!
604-764-6336
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