Banks allow home buyers to have a gifted down payment from an immediate family member.  Immediate family member is considered mother, father, sister, brother or grandparents.  When receiving a gift from a family member, the funds must be deposited into the home buyers bank account 15 days before closing of the mortgage.  Once funds have been deposited into your account, you would provide a bank statement and a gift letter from the bank that is doing your mortgage.  Each bank has their own form. 

Be reminded that the amount written on the letter must be exactly the same (to the penny) as the amount deposited into your bank account. 

Once you have the gift letter signed by your family member and your bank statement printed out, give those copies to your mortgage broker. 

If you have any questions on gifted down payments, contact me at the office at 604-552-6190 or email support@primexmortgages.com

Be reminded that if you are purchasing a home, all banks require a 90 day history of bank statements or investment statements confirming the funds have been in your account for the past 3 months.  If there are deposits over $2000, be prepared to provide further paper trail to those deposits.  If you are getting a gift from a family member that is helping towards down payment, then you will need a gift letter signed by your immediate family member.  See the next blog post on Gifted Down Payments. 

Other reminders on down payment confirmation, you can use online statements providing they have your name on them and not just an account number. 

If your down payment funds are not in a Canadian account, this could pose a problem.  Down payment requirements in Canada are required to be in a Canadian account for 45 days prior to funding (closing of the mortgage) 

If you ever have questions on down payment confirmation, easiest thing is to contact us here at the office.  604-552-6190 or email me at support@primexmortgages.com

Canada’s three most watched real estate boards reported January results last week. Vancouver saw strong sales and price growth and a reduction is listings which increased competition among buyers while Toronto also saw strong sales and continued rising prices but with an increase in listings which provided buyers with more choice. In Calgary, prices have so far held on to most of the gains made in 2014 but many buyers are waiting for economic conditions to stabilize before proceeding. This caused a sharp drop in sales volumes in January and a surge of new listings which may create downward pressure on prices.

CMHC published its latest Housing Market Outlook last week which calls for a slight reduction in housing starts, stable resale volumes and annual average price gains of about 1.5% over the next two years.

Statistics Canada released January employment data on Friday which showed that the Canadian economy created more than 35,000 jobs for the month, pushing the unemployment rate down to 6.6%. The US economy posted another strong month, creating 257,000 jobs in January.

The benchmark government of Canada five year bond yield ended the week at 0.79%, up from 0.62% the previous week.

Last week brought little in the way of new housing market data but there was no shortage of economic news which was important for the Canadian real estate and mortgage markets.

After the Bank of Canada’s surprise rate cut on January 21st, Canadian banks lowered their Prime rates to 2.85%, passing on to borrowers only part of the cut to the Bank Rate. Canadian bond yields plunged sharply last week with the benchmark five year yield ending the week at 0.62%. The ten year yield closed the week at 1.27% and the thirty year yield closed below 2%. The market appears to have already “priced in” another Bank of Canada rate cut. The Bank’s next meeting date is March 4th.

Statistics Canada released revised December and 2014 year-end data last week. The Canadian economy created only 121,000 jobs last year – 65,000 fewer than was initially reported. The year-end unemployment rate was revised upwardly from 6.6% to 6.7% as a result. 

Statistics Canada also reported November GDP results last week and that news was also disappointing as the Canadian economy shrank 0.2% from October. Weakness in the energy sector and in manufacturing output accounted for the contraction

Canada’s major real estate boards will report January sales data this week.