If you’re like most credit card owners, you get your bill each month and stare a little mystified at your interest charges. What does it mean if you have a 19.99% interest rate? How do they calculate how much interest you owe? Is it calculated daily, monthly, annually? What about cash advances and balance transfers? Read along to gain some clarity and a few coping skills.
Canada’s housing market has long been considered quite overheated. This trend is mostly driven by the extreme markets of Vancouver and Toronto housing markets; these are the markets that government regulations that limit loan to value ratios among others were targeted at cooling. Conversely, the Fort McMurray housing market is crashing along with activity in the oil patch. But where does that leave Calgary’s housing market?
Governor Stephen Poloz and his Governing Council ended their deliberations on April 18th, and the end decision was not to raise interest rates. This has left the benchmark interest rate at 1.25% for now. However, they are unlikely to keep interest rates this low for long. Contact your Calgary Mortgage Broker today to lock in your low interest rate.
What are the options for Millennials to leave the nest? One solution is renting, though that can be expensive in markets like Vancouver and Toronto. A few worry that high housing prices will leave Millennials renters forever. If one is living in a more affordable housing market like Alberta, then it is possible to save up the difference toward a down payment on a new home. Renters benefit from their ability to move wherever work takes them.
On March 20, 2018, the FCAC issued a report dispelling any myth that the Big 6 banks are friendly, supportive institutions – or even neutral. The FCAC report said that the banks had too much of a focus on selling products and services. It warned that they lacked sufficient controls to protect clients from overly excessive sales practices.
Thank you, Donald Trump. Those unlikely words from Canadian mortgage leaders are the result of the economic uncertainty created by Trump’s politicization of the renegotiation of NAFTA.
This fact, combined with the slowdown in domestic spending at the end of 2017 that caught the Bank of Canada by surprise, is primarily to blame for interest rates holding steady after the March Bank of Canada meeting. The issue itself isn’t a surprise since it was cited as a future concern in January when interest rates were raised 0.25%.