Karen Garrett DLC Sea to Sky Mortgages
#106-7015 Nesters Rd V8E 0X1 Whistler, BC, Canada

Speculation and Vacancy Tax Declaration Forms are being mailed out and be sure to complete yours by Feb 2, 2021. Here are the taxable regions for those owning residential properties that will be receiving the declaration Form: Capital Regional District (CRD) Metro Vancouver Regional District City of Abbotsford... District of Mission City of Chilliwack City of Kelowna City of West Kelowna City of Nanaimo District of Lantzville https://www2.gov.bc.ca//speculation-vacancy-/how-tax-works See more

DLC's Chief Economist Dr. Sherry Cooper's update after The Bank of Canada rate announcement today.

The Bank of Canada announced today no changes to the overnight lending rate. Prime rate which is used as a base rate on variable mortgages and lines of credit is unchanged and currently 2.45%. Have questions, let's connect.

BC Assessments are available online as of today January 4th, 2021 and will be arriving by mail in the next few days.

The stress test rate which is the rate used to qualify you for a mortgage has decreased from 4.94% to 4.79%.

The Bank of Canada maintains the overnight rate today.

New CMHC Rules for Homebuyers with Karen Garrett@seatoskymortgages

Property Tax notices are out and a friendly reminder to those that have property taxes collected with your mortgage payments to claim your Home Owners Grant. This is a separate step that needs to be done and you can do so online. https://my.whistler.ca/OnlineServices/eHog/

Canada Guaranty and Genworth will not being following CMHC's new mortgage rules that will be coming into effect July 1st, 2020.

CMHC announced today that some changes are happening to new applications for insured mortgages starting July 1st, 2020. These changes will affect anyone who is required to have mortgage insurance by having less than 20% down payment on their purchase. * First change is the Gross Debt Servicing (GDSR) and Total Debt Servicing Ratios (TDSR) which will be reduced to 35% and 42% from the current 39% and 44%. These numbers represent the gross income that is used to qualify a bor...rower for a mortgage. With these ratios decreasing this may impact you by reducing your purchasing power from what you may have been pre-approved for prior to July 1st. * Second change is the minimum credit bureau score has gone up to 680 for one borrower on the application compared to the previous 600. * Third change is you are unable to borrow the down payment or portion of the down payment from a credit facility such as a line of credit, loan etc. If you have questions on how this may affect you or any other mortgage info, please connect with me. I'd be happy to chat with you and answer any questions.

To apply for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit if you were born in the month of: January, February or March = Mondays Starting April 6th April, May or June = Tuesdays Starting April 7th ... July, August or September = Wednesdays Starting April 8th October, November or December = Thursdays Starting April 9th For Full Details Please visit:

March 25, 2020 - Ottawa, Ontario - Department of Finance Canada The Government of Canada is taking strong, immediate and effective action to protect Canadians and the economy from the impacts of the global COVID-19 pandemic. No Canadian should have to choose between protecting their health, putting food on the table, paying for their medication or caring for a family member. To support workers and help businesses keep their employees, the government has proposed legislation t...o establish the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). This taxable benefit would provide $2,000 a month for up to four months for workers who lose their income as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The CERB would be a simpler and more accessible combination of the previously announced Emergency Care Benefit and Emergency Support Benefit. The CERB would cover Canadians who have lost their job, are sick, quarantined, or taking care of someone who is sick with COVID-19, as well as working parents who must stay home without pay to care for children who are sick or at home because of school and daycare closures. The CERB would apply to wage earners, as well as contract workers and self-employed individuals who would not otherwise be eligible for Employment Insurance (EI). Additionally, workers who are still employed, but are not receiving income because of disruptions to their work situation due to COVID-19, would also qualify for the CERB. This would help businesses keep their employees as they navigate these difficult times, while ensuring they preserve the ability to quickly resume operations as soon as it becomes possible. The EI system was not designed to process the unprecedented high volume of applications received in the past week. Given this situation, all Canadians who have ceased working due to COVID-19, whether they are EI-eligible or not, would be able to receive the CERB to ensure they have timely access to the income support they need. Canadians who are already receiving EI regular and sickness benefits as of today would continue to receive their benefits and should not apply to the CERB. If their EI benefits end before October 3, 2020, they could apply for the CERB once their EI benefits cease, if they are unable to return to work due to COVID-19. Canadians who have already applied for EI and whose application has not yet been processed would not need to reapply. Canadians who are eligible for EI regular and sickness benefits would still be able to access their normal EI benefits, if still unemployed, after the 16-week period covered by the CERB. The government is working to get money into the pockets of Canadians as quickly as possible. The portal for accessing the CERB would be available in early April. EI eligible Canadians who have lost their job can continue to apply for EI here, as can Canadians applying for other EI benefits. See more

Attention all Mortgage professionals regardless of your brand/company. You are invited to Join me on a zoom webinar with Adam Contos, President and CEO of Remax... Worldwide next Thursday April 2nd at 11am PST. Feel free to invite the realtors that you work with to register for this call as your guest. Adam is a friend of mine and very dynamic individual, who will be sharing his views on the global and local real-estate market, The effects of the Covid19 Pandemic, how mortgage professionals and realtors can thrive by working together, and his views and advice on Personal development. About Adam: As the Chief Executive Officer of RE/MAX Holdings, Inc., I oversee its three brands: RE/MAX, LLC, a top real estate brand in over 100 countries and territories; Motto Franchising, LLC, the first national mortgage brokerage franchisor in the U.S.; and booj, an award-winning real estate technology company. Before joining RE/MAX, I ran a SWAT team. Wed kick in doors, blow things up, save people. Fifteen years later, my professional life is completely different, but my approach remains the same. My goal always is to break down barriers, blow up conventional thinking, and help as many people as possible achieve success. Click on the link below to register and join us for an hour of jaw dropping conversation, ideas and inspiration. Remember your best investment is in yourself! https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_XKDXuH0iQK-0tE1VFzUYHw

Banks lower their Prime Lending Rate to 2.45% effective March 30th following The Bank of Canada's drop in the overnight lending rate on Friday March 27th.

Breaking...Bank of Canada cuts overnight rate to .25%. The BoC made the announcement in a news release this morning. Stay tuned if the Banks will follow and cut Prime Rate...

Questions to ask when deferring mortgage payments: 1) If I defer for up to 6 months, how much will my payment increase after that? - this is not free money, your payments will increase and accrue-you will be expected to pay the interest owed back. However, it is unclear how it will be capitalized and seems to change lender by lender. Some lenders are adding it to the balance amortized over the whole mortgage life ( amortization) Some lenders are adding it to the end of t...he term. ( the period of time you committed to with your interest rate) You need to ask how it will affect you. 2) Will it affect my existing renewal date ( maturity date on mortgage) or does my renewal date stay the same. 3) Can i make lump sums payments later and make up these deferred payments rather than keep accruing interest. Things you shouldn't do to skip or defer mortgage payments: * Do not put stop payments on your mortgage. This will be taken as a missed payment and affect your credit. * Do not drain your account or close your payment account so a mortgage payment can't be taken, - this will also affect your credit. * If you have not made contact with your lender and been authorized to defer your payments, any other way of missing payments will be considered non payment and will adversely impact your credit score. Notes: Expect to wait 2 or more hours on hold to be helped...do not expect to get through if you keep calling.

If your are looking to inquire about payment deferral options, you must contact your lender directly as their relief efforts are on an individual case-by-case basis. If you have your mortgage with a lender who has a branch near you, you also can look to going in. Please note institutions are starting to close some branches and/or decrease hours so do check prior to going in. We are being updated on phone numbers and contact details for each lender as they become available. ... We will do our best to update this post with numbers and information as it becomes available. As you can imagine call centres are experiences high volumes. Most of the large financial institutions have access to applying via your online banking or registering through a link on their website. For those that have access to online banking that might work better than waiting on the phone. Large 6 Banks: TD Bank: 1-888-720-0075 or 1-866-222-6456 or go online to: https://www.td.com/ca/en/personal-banking/covid-19/ Scotiabank: 1-800-472-6842 or go online to: https://www.scotiabank.com//s/mortgage-payment-relief.html BMO: 1-877-895-3278 HSBC: 1-888-310-4722 RBC: 1-866-809-5800 or website https://www.rbc.com/covid-19/index.html Here are some direct contact numbers for various lenders across the country: First National: [email protected] or 1-888-488-0794 Home Trust: 1-855-270-3630 or [email protected] MCAP: 1-800-265-2624 or login onto your account Merix:1-877-637-4911 ATB: 1-800-332-8383 B2B: 1-800-263-8349 Bridgewater: 1-866-243-4301 Canadiana: 1-877-315-1633 CFF Bank: 1-855-767-3031 CMLS Financial: 1-888-995-2657 Connect First: 403-520-8000 Equitable: 1-866-407-0004 First Calgary Financial: 403-736-4000 Haventree: 1-855-727-0051 HomeEquity Bank: 1-866-331-2447 ICICI: 1-888-424-2422 Lendwise: 1-866-675-7022 Manulife: 1-800-268-6195 Marathon: 1-855-503-6060 National Bank: 1-888-835-6281 Optimum: 1-866-441-3775 PC Financial: 1-888-723-8881 Radius Financial: 1-866-550-8227 RFA: 1-877-416-7873 RMG: 1-866-809-5800 Servus: 1-877-378-8728 Street Capital: 1-866-683-8090 Tangerine: 1-888-826-4374

Big 6 Banks lower their prime rate .50% from 3.45% to 2.95%.

Breaking - The Bank of Canada cuts key interest rate to 0.75%

Further to the Bank of Canada rate cut today, RBC has now cut its prime lending rate to match the BoC drop of .50%. RBC's prime lending rate dropped to 3.45% and the other big banks have followed. For those of you who may have a line of credit or variable rate mortgage product, this is great news for you. This means your rate has dropped by .50%.

The Bank of Canada cuts the overnight lending rate today by 1/2 a percent to 1.25%. The move had been widely forecast as the central bank responds to the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak, and follows yesterday's decision by the U.S. Federal Reserve to cut rates by 50 basis points.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com//article-nine-things-mor/

Minister of Finance, Bill Morneau announced changes to the benchmark rate used in qualifying for insured mortgages...also known as the 'stress test.' Insured mortgages are usually for a purchase where there is less than 20% down payment. The changes will come into effect April 6, 2020 with the new benchmark rate to be the weekly median 5 year fixed insured mortgage rate from mortgage insurance applications, plus 2%. https://www.canada.ca//minister-morneau-announces-new-benc