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Bringing down the house: the misguided policy behind the U.S. collapse
Sometimes boring is a good thing.
International Monetary Fund economist John Kiff has spent the past few months looking at how mortgage markets in various developed countries weathered the financial crisis.
His conclusion about Canada`s mortgage market: "boring, but effective."
It`s a meat-and-potatoes mortgage market. Most Canadians opt for fixed-rate mortgages, typically five years. Half of borrowers have at least 80 per cent equity in their homes.
On the lender side, a clutch of institutions dominate the Canadian market. Mortgage brokers are rare. Most mortgages are held and serviced by the same institutions that offer the loans. Mortgages are typically backed by deposits and rarely turned into securities and sold off to anonymous investors.
And most notably, government policy is neutral when it comes to owning or renting, with no tax incentive to take on debt.
Read the full article here.
Sometimes boring is a good thing.
International Monetary Fund economist John Kiff has spent the past few months looking at how mortgage markets in various developed countries weathered the financial crisis.
His conclusion about Canada`s mortgage market: "boring, but effective."
It`s a meat-and-potatoes mortgage market. Most Canadians opt for fixed-rate mortgages, typically five years. Half of borrowers have at least 80 per cent equity in their homes.
On the lender side, a clutch of institutions dominate the Canadian market. Mortgage brokers are rare. Most mortgages are held and serviced by the same institutions that offer the loans. Mortgages are typically backed by deposits and rarely turned into securities and sold off to anonymous investors.
And most notably, government policy is neutral when it comes to owning or renting, with no tax incentive to take on debt.
Read the full article here.