Curious how this could affect you? Let’s assume that you are qualified to purchase a $1,000,000 home (which really doesn’t exist in Vancouver). OSFI wants to ensure that you can afford a larger payment in the event the mortgage rates are higher, at the end of your mortgage term, which is generally 5 years. I think this is a VERY good idea but it makes qualifying much harder. The “stress test” has been around for a while, previously for a line of credit, variable rate mortgage, and open mortgage qualification. Following this, it was introduced to high-ratio buyers, meaning that there is less than 20% down payment. Now they want to introduce it to everyone, to be fair, of course.

Essentially, you will lose 20% of your purchasing power. This will substantially affect buyers and sellers. If you are considering listing your property, DO IT FAST. If you are considering buying and are tight with qualifying, DO IT FAST.

When this kicks in, we expect the market to “adjust” for an unknown period of time. If you thought that you couldn’t anything now, just wait until this kicks in.

“Persistently low-interest rates, record levels of household indebtedness, and rapid increases in house prices in certain areas of Canada (such as Greater Vancouver and Toronto), could generate significant loan losses if economic conditions deteriorate,” OSFI wrote in a public letter found here: http://www.osfi-bsif.gc.ca/Eng/fi-if/in-ai/Pages/rfmrm.aspx

What really bugs me is that mortgages help Canadians buy an asset that appreciates (over time) and the government wants to restrict this. However, they have zero problems with banks giving away 19.99%+ credit cards to kids like candy.

I would love to hear what you think?

Own your life,

Jessi Johnson
Vancouver Realtor & Vancouver Mortgage Broker

Andrew Weichel, ctvbc.ca
Published Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Housing sales in Greater Vancouver increased 31 percent from March to April, making experts predict more stability in the region’s turbulent real estate market.

Housing affordability and low Bank of Canada lending rates contributed to April’s increased activity, according to Scott Russell, president of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.

“We’re also seeing sellers that are more realistic when they’re pricing their products, and that has a big impact on it,” Russell said.

The increased sales figures still represent a drop from last year. Detached property sales fell eight percent compared to April 2008, while apartment sales dropped 10.5 percent. New property listings have also been declining for six consecutive months.

Despite the comparatively low numbers, Russell is optimistic about market conditions.

“What we’re seeing is very encouraging for us right now,” Russell said. “This is more stability, and that’s a really key point for people.”

Vancouver mortgage broker Jessi Johnson agrees. He says banks are getting backed up pre-approving mortgages and refinancing mortgages for the first time in months.
“Some of the lenders we deal with, we can’t even send deals to them,” Johnson said. “They say ‘alright, but it’s going to be three of four days before we even look at it.'”

Some neighborhoods also managed to beat last year’s sales figures. Vancouver West sold 193 units in April, a 59.5 percent increase over the 121 units sold in April 2008.

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – A local mortgage broker says Vancouver’s thin streets idea will lower property values.

Jessi Johnson says it’s a bad idea. “Aesthetically, I think it will probably look terrible. I think we have a beautiful city and there are other alternatives we should be looking at instead of this.”

City Council has agreed to consider thin streets as part of its affordable housing plan at yesterday’s council meeting. The plan calls for small homes built close together. To make room for them, properties would expand out onto the road, making the street thinner and leaving less room for cars.

“Thin streets are an idea that has some merit, and it has certainly gotten a lot of attention, but I want to be clear – this is not something we’re going to force on any neighborhood,” says Mayor Gregor Robertson in a release.

“If it’s going to happen, there needs to be community buy-in,” adds Robertson.

He says it’s only being considered in Marpole, the West End, and Grandview-Woodland for now. Johnson says people who own corner lots in those neighborhoods should be paying attention.

“As an owner in the city, anything that can potentially affect the value of a property should be concerned,” explains Johnson. “At the same time, I honestly think all properties within the area of this proposed housing will be affected and I don’t blame them for being upset.”

See the article online here: http://www.news1130.com/2012/10/04/vancouver-city-council-agrees-to-consider-thin-streets/

According to the bank, 16 percent of respondents said they would not be able to afford such an increase, while more than a quarter, or roughly 27 percent, would need to review their budget.

Another 26 percent said they would be concerned, but could probably handle it.

Such an increase would be generated in the case of a three percentage point hike in interest rates – from 2.75 percent to 5.75 percent – on a $300,000 mortgage with a 25-year amortization period.

Given that interest rates are likely to increase in the foreseeable future, the bank said there was no better time to put together a detailed debt management plan.

“The ultimate goal of most Canadians should be the elimination of debt, but the first step needs to be getting rid of bad debt, which has the potential to destabilize a household’s financial situation,” said Chris Buttigieg, senior manager of wealth planning strategy at BMO.

“A financial professional can help you avoid having your debt lead to long-term financial instability and work with you to develop a plan to sort out your balance sheet as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

A report by Statistics Canada last month found the ratio of household credit market debt to disposable income climbed in the second quarter of 2015 to 164.6 percent, up from 163.0 percent in the first three months of the year.

That means Canadians owed nearly $1.65 in consumer credit and mortgage and non-mortgage loans for every dollar of disposable income.

The report by BMO’s Wealth Institute found that almost half of Canadians, 47 percent, believed that the high level of debt in Canada has been influenced by soaring real estate values, while 40 percent believed it has been influenced by low rates.

Interest rates, including mortgage rates, have been near historic lows. The Bank of Canada has cut its key interest rate twice this year in an attempt to boost an economy hobbled by a sharp drop in commodity prices.

BMO noted that when interest rates are low it is a good time to make aggressive principal repayments on loans and its survey found that 35 percent of those asked are looking to pay down their mortgage sooner.

“However, statistics have shown that debt service rates have not changed very much from the early 1990s when interest rates were much higher,” the report said.

“It appears that many Canadians have used low-interest rates to get larger loans on more expensive houses rather than to aggressively repay their debt.”

The online survey was conducted by ValidateIt for BMO from June 23 to 29, with a sample size of 1,014 Canadians.

The polling industry’s professional body, the Marketing Research, and Intelligence Association says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.

Jessi Johnson & Sharad Khare live on stage at the Home + Garden Show 2015 at BC Place talking about buying yours for home. Recorded by Roman @ Dark Edge Media

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The cost of your mortgage might be rising soon, thanks to changes announced today by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

The agency has reduced the guarantees it offers banks on mortgage-backed securities. These guarantees cover mortgages the banks bundle up and sell as securities.

National Bank analyst Peter Routledge says the result could be a 20-to-65 basis point increase in the big banks’ cost of funding mortgages, which could lead to a rate increase for borrowers.

But TD Bank Economist Diana Petramala says even if the increase is at the higher end of that estimate, mortgage rates will remain relatively low.

“Low by historical standards and roughly more in-line to where it was in 2011,” she explains. “So the impact on the housing market is likely to be very limited.”

But the economist says the impact “could take some of the steam out of home sales and particularly prices.”

Mortgage broker Jessi Johnson says CMHC is attempting to protect taxpayers from risks in the mortgage industry.

“There’s no doubt this is part of their plan to cool the market further,” he says. “If you’re a homeowner, tactics like this essentially will mean the value of your home will not increase substantially as we’ve seen in the past 10 years.”

But he doesn’t believe prices will be going down.

CMHC has told mortgage lenders they will get no more than $350 million each in new guarantees this month. As of July, they had taken up federal guarantees on $66 billion of this year’s $85-billion total.

CMHC cites an “unexpected increase” in mortgage-backed securities, which allow banks to issue more mortgages.

Full article here: http://www.news1130.com/2013/08/06/cost-of-mortages-may-soon-rise-due-to-cmhc-changes/

Mortgage broker and entrepreneur Jessi Johnson specializes in educating his clients in phases; starting with buying your first home, debt consolidation & refinancing, how to pay the mortgage down faster, tax deductions, then applying various investment strategies to grow wealth from real estate.

After beginning his entrepreneurial career at the age of six, Jessi spent his late teens and early twenties throwing concerts and running his multi-employee power-washing business. With a large marketing background and UBC education, he used his experience to create a team of brokers working together to provide the best possible service available. Jessi is licensed in British Columbia and is currently operating his broker team out of two offices in BC (Vancouver & South Surrey).

Jessi has been selected as the lead mortgage broker on Canada’s newest financial reality show: Million Dollar Neighborhood. He’s been interviewed on News1130, in the Georgia Straight, and has appeared on Breakfast Television and Global TV several times. He was also a keynote speaker at the BC Real Estate Convention at Canada Place in 2010.

Visit Jessi’s websites: www.jessijohnson.ca, www.ownyourlife.ca

Topics discussed in this interview:

Jessi’s first entrepreneurial endeavors

Skills and lessons learned from his experiences

Why Jessi decided to work in the mortgage financing sector

The process of starting his business

How to create systems in your business so it works without you

Advice for building a solid online presence

How to attract high-quality people to work for you

Advice for leaders

Ways to set yourself apart from your competitors

Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs

FULL article here: http://chattingwithchampions.com/jessi-johnson-taking-ownership-of-your-life-and-business/

by Charlie Smith

Jessi Johnson is coming to your living room.

Maybe it’s the hair. Or the fact that he can talk intelligently about interest rates. Or that he’ll make himself available on a moment’s notice for an interview.

Whatever the reason, Vancouver mortgage broker Jessi Johnson has been selected to appear on a new reality series about finances. He’s not giving away any details about the show, except to say it will hit “North American television” in 2012. And he’s pretty thrilled about it.

Jessi won’t even tell us who’s behind it. Is it the Donald? He has a thing for hairstyles, you know. How about Mark Burnett? A third big fish in the reality-TV world is Pilgrim Films & Television, which relies heavily on Whitecap Alpine Adventures owner Lars Andrews. When he’s not running his B.C. ski lodge, Andrews is the coordinating producer of the Emmy-winning Out of the Wild.

Here’s one thing you can bet on: Jessi won’t be appearing on Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew. Gary Busey and Dennis Rodman can relax—they don’t have to worry about being upstaged by a local mortgage broker.

Follow Charlie Smith on Twitter at twitter.com/csmithstraight.

FULL article here: http://www.straight.com/blogra/mortgage-broker-jessi-johnson-may-become-reality-tv-star