Ray Macklem
550 - 2608 Granville Street V6H 3H8 Vancouver, BC, Canada

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CMHC is making changes to Insured Borrowing Anyone buying a home with less than 20% down payment will be subject to new qualifying rules effective July 1st, 2020. The rule changes laid out today in a press release (which can be found here) are as follows: The minimum credit score for at least one borrower must be 680 (increased from 600)... Gross Debt Service Ratio (share of income that goes toward paying housing costs) will be reduced to 35% (down from 39%) Total Debt Service Ratio (share of income that goes toward paying all debt obligations) will be reduced to 42% (down from 44%) Insurance premiums will be applied based on traditional payment sources (ie. savings/gifted funds etc.). Non-traditional down payment sources will still be permitted but will not reduce your insurance premium With concerns over the potential for housing prices to drop across the country, CMHC is taking these measures to reduce the riskiness of homebuyers with less than 20% down payment. It will be interesting to see if the two privately owned insurers (Genworth and Canada Guaranty) follow suit. What does this mean in terms of buying power for consumers? For those looking to push their borrowing to the maximum allowable limit, they will see a reduction of almost 10% in their buying power. While this is not an insignificant change, there are a few questions that remain unanswered. Will these be permanent changes or ones that are left behind as we move through economic recovery? Canada's lending system is extremely strong and consistently weathers storms much better than most. If these changes do affect you or your home buyers and you would like to know more about it, please reach out. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.

So this certificate popped up in my inbox this morning. The readers of Peace Arch News have excellent taste!