VERICO Designer Mortgages

Bank of Canada is expected to lower interest rates this Tuesday… many economists are forecasting a half-point chop to their bank rate to 1.75 per cent, the lowest since 1960.

Interbank funding spreads have narrowed by more than half since mid-October. This is making it possible for banks to pass on the central bank rate cut to customers in the form of lower prime rates.

Prime rates are the rates for loans to banks’ best corporate borrowers and are the base for lending on everything from mortgages, lines of credit, consumer loans and car loans.

Gina Burgio, Mortgage Agent
VERICO Designer Mortgages Inc.
Toll Free: 1-877-345-6265
Fax: 1-877-345-6256
Email: gina@ginaburgio.com
www.ginaburgio.com

Each VERICO Broker is an independent owner operator.

Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney said in a speech recently that the Canadian economy has deteriorated more quickly than he had anticipated, hinting strongly he will cut interest rates at the next meeting on December 9.

This is also the first time that the Bank of Canada has conceded that the Canadian economy could be headed for a recession. “Starting from flat growth in the first quarter of 2009 and the second quarter of 2009 … recession is a possibility for Canada,” commented Carney.

The technical definition of a recession is two or more consecutive quarters of negative economic growth. The Canadian economy contracted in the third quarter ended and is expected to contract again in the current quarter ended Dec. 31.

Gina Burgio, Mortgage Agent
VERICO Designer Mortgages Inc.
Toll Free: 1-877-345-6265
Fax: 1-877-345-6256
Email: gina@ginaburgio.com
www.ginaburgio.com

Each VERICO Broker is an independent owner operator.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty pledged today to triple the amount of mortgages the government can buy from banks to as much as C$75 billion.

The Canadian Gov’t, using its crown corporation, the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC), purchased $25 billion in mortgages last month.

Allow me to explain in simply terms what the government is in fact doing…

The gov’t via CMHC has insured many mortgages for the banks. In other words, CMHC has sold the banks default insurance on mortgages that the banks have provided to their clients, which guarantees that CMHC will cover any shortfall realized by the banks in the event of default by their clients. The banks issues these mortgages to their clients using their own money, and the bank waits for repayment based on the terms of the mortgage, as with any other typical mortgage.

As a result of the recent program announced by the Cdn Gov’t to purchase mortgages, CMHC is in essence purchasing mortgages from the banks that they have previously insured…. in other words, purchasing mortgages from the banks that they were already on the hook for. These purchases allow the banks to cash in these mortgages now (so that they can free up cash to ideally put towards lending to clients interested in new mortgages), while CMHC and the Cdn gov’t takes on no greater risk exposure for these mortgages since they were previously insured by them.

 Gina Burgio, Mortgage Agent
VERICO Designer Mortgages Inc.
Toll Free: 1-877-345-6265
Fax: 1-877-345-6256
Email: gina@ginaburgio.com
www.ginaburgio.com

Each VERICO Broker is an independent owner operator.

Bank of Canada has hinted that they may cut interest rates again.

Early today in Toronto, Bank of Canada Senior Deputy Governor Paul Jenkins stated, “Some further monetary stimulus will likely be required to achieve our 2 percent inflation target over the medium term.”

The Cdn Central Bank cut its benchmark overnight lending rate to 2.25 percent on Oct. 21.

Some economists expect that the Bank of Canada will cut their overnight rate a half point to 1.75 percent on Dec. 9. This would be the lowest since 1960.

 Gina Burgio, Mortgage Agent
VERICO Designer Mortgages Inc.
Toll Free: 1-877-345-6265
Fax: 1-877-345-6256
Email: gina@ginaburgio.com
www.ginaburgio.com

Each VERICO Broker is an independent owner operator.

Many people were wondering last month why the Canadian Dollar started to lose value against the US Dollar, when it appears that the USA was in greater crisis mode in comparison to Canada.

Well here is why….

Canada is one of the world’s largest producers of oil and holds oil reserves second only to Saudi Arabia, which makes Canada very reliant on its most prized commodity. It is also the largest supplier to the world’s biggest oil consumer - the United States. Therfore, rising oil prices tend to be good for Canada/bad for the U.S., while falling oil prices tend to be bad for Canada/good for the U.S.

As you can see from the chart above, price movements USD/CAD and Oil are inversely correlated from each other - meaning as oil trends higher, USD/CAD tends to trend lower and vice versa.

Since January 1988, USD/CAD and Oil have had about a 68% inverse correlation to each other. This is a pretty strong correlation.

Gina Burgio, Mortgage Agent
VERICO Designer Mortgages Inc.
Toll Free: 1-877-345-6265
Fax: 1-877-345-6256
Email: gina@ginaburgio.com

Each VERICO Broker is an independent owner operator.