The federal government is boosting the minimum down payment for higher-priced homes in Canada effective in the new year 2016. Homebuyers are currently required to put down a minimum of five per cent to qualify for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation insurance — protection that lenders insist on when providing a mortgage worth more than 80 per cent […]
We need to save Canadian taxpayers from tax scams
Canadians are receiving a deluge of calls from fake Canada Revenue Agency collectors, warning that police would show up to arrest then after an audit showed they had a whopping tax bill to pay. The scam, which has circulated since January 2014, involves not just fraud but harassment. “You feel very threatened and […]
Canadian dollar slumps, and Stephen Poloz talks negative rates
Canada’s plunging currency was a hot topic this week, as the loonie set a new 11-year low seemingly every single day since Monday. The reasons why Canadian dollar loosing are complex, but they’re very closely tied to the slumping price of oil, which can’t seem to find a bottom. OPEC is pumping more, the IEA […]
How negative interest rates could have a positive economic impact
Normally when you put money in a savings account with a bank, you earn money on that deposit. If you were to deposit $100 at a 0.5 per cent interest rate, for example, you would have $100.50 at the end of the year. A negative interest rate would work the other way — if you […]
CMHC finds foreign ownership of Toronto Condos low but growing
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation has crunched the 2015 numbers on foreign ownership of condos in Canadian cities and again concluded that it is low but growing. In Vancouver, about 3.5 per cent of condominiums were owned by foreign buyers in 2015, up from 2.3 per cent a year earlier. The percentage jumped in […]
