Mortgage for Change Blog

Have current rates and a mortgage calculator at the tip of your fingers wherever you go!

Download and use my personal mortgage app for your BlackBerry or iPhone! Tools include:

• Home Affordability and Mortgage Payment Calculators
• My personal mortgage rates, up-to-date!

Type the URL below into your phone's web browser. Install the app then enter the activiation code below. (Tip - copy and paste this message into an email that you can send to your phone). 

Click Here from your iPhone or BlackBerry : http://www.workingbusinesscard.com/download.php

After you download the app, please enter this activation code:

6410963764

Enjoy!

"Lack of awareness is major obstacle for the mortgage broker channel." This is how the last CAAMP homeowner survey results begin. (Consumer and Industry Perceptions).

Of 2,000 responses, just 5% of Canadians said they have a good understanding of what a mortgage broker does!

To nail this point home, I recently read a finance article published in a Toronto newspaper. The author wrote an entire article about the importance of going the trials and tribulations of personally shopping the banks for a good mortgage. She believes her time was best served and she got the best mortgage by personally visiting BANKS for rates. It seems she didn’t even consider speaking with a mortgage broker.

My take away? It seems that mortgage brokers need to take more responsibility for sharing what we do.

Just yesterday, I attended a professional development session hosted by FICOM. We were told that currently in Canada approximately 33% of first time buyers are using a Mortgage Broker to arrange their financing. Hmm... seems the younger crowd perhaps are more mortgage savvy than their parents?

So, if you are in the know, please tell a friend;

• Working with an Accredited Mortgage Professional (AMP) saves you time, hassle and usually lots of money.
• A broker shops the banks and lenders to find the best mortgage for you. Banks and lenders offer us their 'best rates' because - if they don't - their competitors will get all the broker mortgage business. (And that's a lot of business!)
• For a person with an average credit rating, it costs nothing to use a mortgage broker. Banks and lenders pay a fee to brokers for bringing them new clients.

The Bank of Canada announced Tuesday that it is leaving its key interest rate unchanged, and repeated its commitment to hold the rate steady until the second quarter of 2010, conditional upon inflation.  

In its statement the Bank judges that the factors affecting its inflation outlook are "roughly balanced" at this time.  "On the upside, the main risks are stronger-than-projected global and domestic demand.  On the downside, the main risks are a more protracted global recovery and persistent strength of the Canadian dollar."  

The Bank also noted that "the economy grew at an annual rate of 5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009, spurred by vigorous domestic spending and further recovery in exports."  

Pricing for loans that are typically linked to a lender's prime rate (such as variable-rate mortgages, variable-rate credit cards) is expected to remain unchanged in the wake of today's announcement.  

Pricing for fixed-rate mortgages is not directly affected by the Bank's key rate.