20 Mar

Federal budget 2019: Mortgage related commentary

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Posted by: Aneta Zimnicki

Summary of mortgage related items in the budget:

The federal budget announced a new first-time home buyer incentive. It is essentially a ‘shared mortgage’ or interest-free loan to be repaid when the property is sold. Loan of 5% (existing home) or 10% (new build) of purchase price on insured purchases with minimum 5% and maximum 20% down payment. Maximum household income of $120K, and purchase price no more than four times the buyers’ household income. This translates to maximum price of $505K. Borrowers still must qualify under the existing stress test. Details on exactly how this repayment will look like was not presented, ‘more details released later this year’.

The RSP first-time home buyers plan (HBP) limit is increased from $25K to $35K.  Can be used towards a down payment on a purchase. Repayment timeline is unchanged.

My interpretation:

  • This does not address much the issue of supply of housing.
  • It creates an already existing competition for entry level housing, as the maximum price translates to $505K (and can be lower, depending on your household income).
  • It shuts out most expensive regions like Toronto and Vancouver, due to their higher home prices.
  • Since this is still a ‘loan’, it just pushes borrower’s debt to the future, as they have to repay once property is sold.
  • This adds risk to the taxpayer, as the government-backed ‘interest-free home loan’ is tied to real estate values. What if values go down? Isn’t this the space the government wanted out of several years ago, and now they are back in the real estate business?
  • There are no specific details on how the loan exit will work. Let’s worry about that possibly ‘after the election’.
  • Their published example of a $400K home purchase with the incentive yielded a monthly mortgage payment reduction of approximately $200. If they just reverted back to allowing 30 year amortization from 25 years, it would be a similar reduction. Why create complexity, new bureaucracy and programs instead of letting go.
  • Similar local down payment assistance programs have been commented on as not as widely used as expected.
  • The increase in HBP can benefit some, but many younger first-time home buyers don’t have that much saved up anyway.
  • Although the government claims to listen and rely on industry experts, much of what was said from the mortgage industry fell on deaf ears.
  • A focus on strengthening our economy and jobs could be a better approach to address issues with debt loads and affordability.

We will have to wait and see the effects and market reaction.

6 Mar

Why advertised rates are baloney

General

Posted by: Aneta Zimnicki

A while back, mortgage rates were simpler. They could be summarized in one simple table. Then regulations changed. And they changed again, and again….Now you need to be a detective to figure out what applies to your specific situation. That is why advertised rates are baloney. Because they don’t tell you the whole story.

The biggest regulatory change is the mortgage insurers’ criteria. The key changes in insurer criteria are: purchases only, no refinances (huge impact to consumers and their debt load forcing them into more expensive debt), maximum 25 year amortization, maximum $1M purchase price, must qualify at the benchmark rate (currently 5.34%), no single unit rentals (only duplex to fourplex, a huge impact to investors).

In response to this, the financing industry spun out a beast of mortgage product and rate categories. Here is a rundown of how a typical lender classifies rates.

Insured: Means borrower pays the mortgage insurance. For the most part, it implies a ‘high ratio’ mortgage, where the down payment is less than 20%. In this case, the property has to be owner-occupied or if multiple units (duplex to fourplex), at least one unit must be owner-occupied. Other permitted properties are full rental duplex to fourplex (minimum 20% downpayment) and second homes (owner-occupied). It must meet the insurer criteria (noted above), and refinances are not eligible in this category.

Because the borrower is paying mortgage insurance, it helps mitigate the risk to lender, so they are able to offer the best rates compared to the other categories. In a perverse way, it can look like borrowers with a lower down payment are rewarded with a better rate. But not necessarily, you have to look deeper into the math.

This rate category is most likely the one being advertised, but this is very misleading because it excludes a large portion of consumers.

Insurable: Means the lender ‘bulk insures’ their portfolio, to help mitigate risk, but lender pays the mortgage insurance instead of the borrower. The application must meet the insurer criteria, as note above. Since the lender pays for the insurance, the rate is slightly higher than the ‘insured’ category. Here you may see further rate stratification based on ‘loan to value’ (LTV) range from less than 65%LTV to 80%LTV, or, credit score (but has to meet minimum insurer credit guidelines). Applicants are qualified at the greater of the contract rate plus 2% or the benchmark rate (the dreaded ‘stress test’).

Uninsurable: Means does not meet insurer criteria. In general, this is refinances, purchases over $1M, single unit rentals, amortization over 25 years. The overwhelming majority of lenders qualify at the greater of the contract rate plus 2% or the benchmark rate (again the huge impact of the ‘stress test’ is seen here). Many lenders will use 30 year amortization to qualify. In this category, the lender can choose to be more flexible with qualifying and varied with their product offerings, although some do not stray far from creativity and innovation.

One of the biggest segments in this category is refinance, and typically has its own rate, which is higher than the ‘insured’ or ‘insurable’ group. Beyond that, a rate premium model is applied, for an array of situations. A rate bump is added to the base uninsurable rate, or some lenders choose to add a lender fee to the file instead.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because now a more common sense, case by case type of underwriting is used, and gets you to a yes versus a flat-out decline. Lenders price out the risk accordingly, and you are paying only for the specific added risk you present to the lender. Premiums can be applied for situations like rental property, second home, self employed, amortization above 25 years, debt ratios, credit issues, loan amount, size of rental portfolio, rental income calculations. The rate bump can be small, starting at 0.05%, but it depends on the situation. If the situation is more complex, then the application may fall into B lender territory, which has slightly higher rates (but not unreasonable, considering the risk and flexible underwriting approach).

Beyond that, there are other subset categories and industry terms thrown at you.

Non-B20 compliant: Generally means not subject to the ‘stress test’, so qualifying at contract rate without the +2%. This field is narrowed down to non-federally regulated lenders, essentially credit unions. The rate is higher, but it can be the difference between being able to qualify or not. The rate falls in between B lenders and the 3 categories noted above.

‘No frills’: Lenders use various names for this slightly lower rate product (like ‘low rate’, ‘basic’). It may be a modest rate decrease, but it comes with restrictions like stricter penalty costs, fees or exit limitations. Sometimes this is what you see advertised as a special, and unsuspecting borrowers sign up without fully understanding the restrictions. In my opinion, often not worth putting yourself in such a mortgage prison.

Quick close: Specials from time to time, typically for 30 or 45 day closing. This is for ‘new business’, so not applicable to applications already submitted, approved or waiting for closing. You have to understand that lenders’ costs increase the longer the time horizon due to market uncertainty, in return you get the certainty of an approval and rate hold.

Conventional or low ratio: Potentially redundant term used with categories mentioned above. Usually means more than 20% down payment.

Switch or transfer: Moving your mortgage from one lender to another, without any changes to structure, such as no new funds out, no change in amortization. However, you and the property still have to qualify. Rate depends on the situation, as now what used to be ‘insurable’ may possibly not be. A skilled mortgage broker ninja may be able to get you ‘grandfathered’ into a better rate category.

Equity take out: When you need to take funds out of your mortgage. Because you are restructuring the mortgage, this is considered a refinance.

In summary, rates are clear as mud, right? The plethora of regulatory changes means having a broker in your corner is more important than ever. Spare yourself the trouble and leave the rate and mortgage solution deciphering up to the pro.

6 Mar

Bank of Canada rate announcement

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Posted by: Aneta Zimnicki

The Bank of Canada holds the rate steady. Your variable rate mortgage remains unchanged.

The mood of the announcement now paints a different picture than the last year’s hinting of increase. Now it says ‘CPI inflation to be slightly below the 2% target through most of 2019’, (typically above 2% mean they raise rate) and ‘Given the mixed picture that the data present, it will take time to gauge the persistence of below-potential growth and the implications for the inflation outlook.’

And hey, it’s an election year, so do they really want to rock the boat? Next rate announcement scheduled April 24.