It was announced last week that the Bank of Canada is finally easing the stress test for home buyers with less than 20% down payment. This is great news that we are heading in the right direction after having mortgage rules tightened a few years ago. They have not yet confirmed that we will see a lower qualification rate for conventional mortgages (those with more than 20% down or wanting to refinance). We are hoping to see that change come soon as well. It’s not having a huge impact so far from what we are seeing but a little is better than none. Example would be on a client that was pre-approved for a purchase price of $485,000 under the old stress test rate and now they qualify to purchase for $520,000. In the Greater Vancouver market, any improvement at all is better than none. For more information, please call us at the office at 604-552-6190 and one of us would love to help you through.
For further insight, have a listen to the interview of our very own economist Dr. Sherry Cooper on her take of the changes and where we are heading.