A latticework of government demand-side policies are seemingly tailor-made to hold the line on unaffordably high real estate prices.

I’m surprised we’ve seen basically nothing from provincial or federal governments to improve housing/rental affordability. With riding interest rates, I was expecting at least a slump, but that hasn’t happened. Instead, we’ve seen amortizations grow rapidly.

The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions has recommended

Removing the ability to extend amortization periods could exert downward pressure on some house prices, as it reduces the options available to help some borrowers meet their financial obligation

But (AFAIU) Parliament has ignored the recommendation. It’s a really shitty situation, that I don’t see a way out of.

  • Tgnome
    6•2 years ago

    Ya, 35+ years is a long time. I worked on mortgage application software for a bit for a major bank a few years ago and I don’t remember amortization periods being able to go past 30 years.

    Edit: Holy shit, 25% ish of the major banks mortgage portfolios is of mortgages with 35+ year amortization periods.

    • @[email protected]
      9•2 years ago

      Up to 35% already for CIBC’s customer base. Funny how our life expectancy went down down 2 years in a row, but our amortization periods keep going up. Almost like another disaster waiting to happen for our economy. ___