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The 2019 Canadian Mortgage Stress Test

Meeting the mortgage demands and being approved is already challenging enough, but securing a mortgage in 2019 is even more of a feat thanks to the recent mortgage stress test.

Let’s look at the new mortgage rules in greater detail and how it impacts home buyers in 2019.

Explained Canadian Mortgage stress test

In order to pass the mortgage stress test, You will need to qualify for your loan interest rate plus 2% or the present five-year benchmark rate of the Bank of Canada, whichever of the two is greater. As of this writing, The five-year benchmark rate of the Bank of Canada is 5.34 percent and has existed since May 2018.

For example, if you are applying for a mortgage at a rate of 3.65%, then your lender will assess you as if you were paying your home loan at 5.65% (3.65% + 2%) since 5.65% is greater than the Bank of Canada’s five-year benchmark rate.

Because of this stress test, Most new homebuyers have had their purchasing power reduced by as much as 20 percent because they are only eligible for a reduced loan at the stress-tested mortgage ratesThe fresh stress test regulations have also rendered refinancing or renewing their mortgage more hard for present homeowners.

How to Prepare For the Mortgage Stress Test

Lenders use a few key metrics when assessing borrowers to make sure they’d be able to pass the stress test and manage mortgage payments, including the gross debt service ratio (GDS) and total debt service ratio (TDS).

Gross debt service ratio (GDS) – Your GDS is the proportion of your pre-tax revenue needed to pay all cost of accommodation. In addition to your stress-tested monthly mortgage payment, your lender will look at the expense of all other monthly expenditures, including condo charges, utility bills, and property taxes.

Your gross monthly revenue will add all these expenses together and divide them. Ideally, lenders want a proportion not exceeding 32%.

Total debt service ratio (TDS) – All of your debts will also need to be factored into the equation, so lenders will look at your TDS as well. This is how much of your monthly revenue is required to cover your debts properly.

To better prepare yourself for the stress test, consider taking the following actions:

Pay down your debt. As already mentioned, Your lender will examine all the debt you presently carry and determine if you would qualify for a mortgage or not. The smaller your current debt load, the lower your TDS will be.

In turn, The findings of your stress test may be more favorable. To prevent paying so much in interest fees, focus first on paying down your high-interest debt (such as your credit cards).

Apply for a smaller loan amount. Be realistic about how much house you can actually afford. You might have your sights set on a home in the $900,000 price range, but if you look at homes in the $700,000 range instead, you might make things much more financially feasible for yourself.

This will not only improve your chances of passing the stress test and obtaining a mortgage approval, but it can also free up more of your income and prevent you from going “house poor.”

Crunch some numbers. Ask yourself if you can afford to pay an extra $500, for example, In mortgage payments if rates raise suddenly after approval.

You could be comfortable making monthly mortgage payments of $1,000, for instance, But what if you had to throw an extra $500? Would that be doable? Or would that throw you into a financial frenzy?

That’s precisely why this stress test was carried out. In the near future, if you are confronted with greater prices, your lender would want to make sure that you are still able to create complete payments each month rather than face default.

 

Source Link : “https://loanscanada.ca/mortgage/the-canadian-mortgage-stress-test-in-2019/”

The real estate market in Vancouver no longer ‘highly vulnerable,’ CMHC says

OTTAWA – Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. has reduced the Vancouver housing market vulnerability score to “moderate,” marking the first three-year shift as prices eased.

The federal agency states in a report that Vancouver’s “evidence of price acceleration” has eased to low, prompting a downsizing as “extremely vulnerable” after 12 successive quarters.

“While home price growth has considerably outstripped rates backed by fundamentals over the previous few years, these imbalances have reduced in various sections of the resale industry through fundamental development and reduced home prices.,” CMHC said in its latest Housing Market Assessment report.

The agency said a moderate degree of vulnerability continues at the domestic level, but imbalances have declined over the previous year between house prices and the basics of the housing market. Some markets like Toronto and Victoria, however, are at greater risk.

Nationally, The inflation-adjusted average cost reduced by 5.6% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2019 from the same period a year previously, CMHC said.

In the previous quarter’s report, CMHC lowered its rating for Canada’s overall housing market from to moderate from high vulnerability – where it had stood for 10 consecutive quarters – as mortgage stress tests introduced last year made it harder for homebuyers to qualify and eased price acceleration.

The recent market forecast by the Canadian Real Estate Association published in June projects that the domestic average cost will drop to about $485,000 by the end of this year, compared to the 4.1% decrease reported in 2018.

Recent statistics from Greater Vancouver’s Real Estate Board showed that a home in Metro Vancouver’s benchmark cost dropped to $998,700 in June, the first time since May 2017 it fell below the $1 million mark.

The Bank of Canada in May also said that housing prices in the key markets of Vancouver and Toronto have cooled, but imbalances in real estate markets are still an important vulnerability for the overall financial system.

The vulnerability assessment of CMHC is based on several criteria including cost acceleration, overvaluation, overbuilding, and overheating. It examines the degree of vulnerability and aims to define housing market imbalances.

Toronto, Hamilton and Victoria continue to be highly vulnerable, but in all three markets, overheating, price speed and overvaluation show signs of decline.

Source URL: “https://bc.ctvnews.ca/vancouver-real-estate-market-no-longer-highly-vulnerable-cmhc-says-1.4533155”

The lowest June home sales since Y2 K for Metro Vancouver, the benchmark price drops below $1 M

June house sales across Greater Vancouver were the lowest since 2000 because for the first time in two years, the benchmark cost for all households in the region fell below $1 million.

The Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board (REBGV) claims 2,077 homes sold in June, down 14.4 percent year-on-year and down 21.3 percent from this year’s May.

According to the board, sales were also 34.7 percent below the June 10-year average and the 19-year lowest for the month.

The pace of new market listings has slackened, with a 10% fall in new homes added to the market since June 2018, the REBGV said.

However, inventory continued to stack up, with just under 15,000 homes listed for sale — up 25.3 per cent from the same month last year and up a modest 1.9 per cent from May 2019, it said.

As sales continue to soften so, too, do prices.

The benchmark price for all home types was $998,700 in June, the lowest it has been since May 2017, the REBGV said.

For detached homes across the region, the benchmark price was $1,423,500, down 10.9 per cent year over year and 9.2 per cent over three years but up 0.1 per cent from May.

For apartments, the benchmark price was $654,700 in June, down 8.9 per cent year over year and 1.4 per cent from May.

Drilling deeper into numbers shows some wilder swings in pricing.

The benchmark price for a detached home in West Vancouver was down 12.9 per cent from last June. It was also down 13.1 per cent in Richmond, 14 per cent on Vancouver’s west side and 12.6 per cent in South Burnaby.

Condo prices, which have better resisted the cool-down, also saw significant movement in some sub-regions.

The benchmark price of a condo was below $500,000 in Ladner, Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, Port Coquitlam and Tsawwassen and under $600,000 in East Vancouver, Coquitlam, New Westminster and North Vancouver.

The REBGV said the sluggish market means buyers are seeing the most choice in five years but that sellers continue to hold on, hoping for “yesterday’s value for their homes.”

Source URL: “https://globalnews.ca/news/5456739/vancouver-june-2019-home-prices/”

Luxury Real Estate Sales Declined in Vancouver, But Rise in Toronto

In the first half of 2019, luxury real estate sales flourished in Montreal with property sales jumping over $4 million by triple digits, but continued to decline in Vancouver, a fresh study says.

“Canada’s top-tier real estate markets veered in separate directions,” read a report released Wednesday by Sotheby’s International Realty Canada, which tracked the number of condominiums, townhouses and detached homes sold for over $1 million and $4 million in major Canadian cities.

The agency has previously forecast Montreal as an emerging hot stop set to make new records.
In the first half of 2019, property sales in excess of $1 million jumped five percent relative to the same period last year..

Sales of properties over $4 million soared 267 per cent with 11 properties sold. Three such properties were sold in the first half of 2018.

Experts from the agency observed an rise in global buyers — a group that, according to the study, involves new Canadians, permanent residents, and investors as overseas buyers ‘ taxes in Toronto and Vancouver redirected global buyers to Montreal.However, the group still composes “a small percentage of overall top-tier sales activity” in the city, it said.

Meanwhile, in Vancouver’s formerly heated housing market, luxury property sales continued to drop due to fallout from government intervention.

The market continued to bear the burden of tightened mortgage rules, multiple governmental policies and taxes, and hesitant sellers and fickle buyers lacking motivation to commit to transactions,” the report read.
Homes sold for over $1 million fell 33 per cent to 1,308 properties, while homes sold for more than $4 million fell 34 per cent to 73 homes.

Evolving conditions in Vancouver real estate have created opportunities for prospective top-tier real estate buyers to consider housing options previously out of reach,” the report said, adding some potential buyers who were considering condos priced at more than $1 million have likely now shifted their focus to attached or detached homes instead.

Sales of condos over $1 million fell 51 per cent in the first six months of this year from 708 condos sold between January and June 2018 to 349 in the same six months of 2019.

“The continued adjustment of housing prices is expected to renew interest and activity in the future,” the report noted of Vancouver’s single family homes priced over $1 million.

sources:URL link”https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/luxury-home-sales-on-the-rise-in-toronto-1.4501772″