Canadian housing became more affordable in the last quarter of 2010 with the help of lower mortgage rates and slight appreciation in home prices, according to a Royal Bank of Canada study. This is the second consecutive quarter where housing became easier to afford.   The information is tracked by RBC’s quarterly Housing Trends and […]

Research released by the Bank of Canada Thursday, not surprisingly suggests that Canada’s largest banks are slow to pass on cuts in the Bank of Canada’s policy interest rate.   “Canadian lenders appear to be extremely slow to pass on changes in the Bank Rate to their customers,” author Jason Allen wrote in the report […]

That’s Taco Bell’s slogan. It’s meant to remind us that fast food doesn’t end with hamburgers. Tacos are pretty tasty in their own right. In the lending world, the closest equivalent to “the bun” is the five-year fixed mortgage. Like hamburgers are to fast food, the five-year fixed is to mortgages. It’s been the most […]

That’s why it’s disappointing to see banks, advice firms, investment dealers and mutual fund companies treated solely like part of the solution to the lack of financial literacy in Canada, and not part of the problem as well.    Better disclosure from the financial industry of fees, rates, terms and conditions is an important way […]

TORONTO – There was a surprising drop in the amount borrowed on credit cards by Canadians during the holiday-laden fourth quarter, but overall non-mortgage debt went up substantially across the country, a credit analysis firm reported Wednesday. TransUnion said average total debt per Canadian consumer, excluding mortgages, was $25,709 in the fourth quarter of 2010 […]

OTTAWA – A new report suggests the average family debt in Canada has now hit the $100,000 mark. In addition, says the Vanier Institute of the Family, the debt-to-income ratio measuring household debt against income, is a record 150 per cent. This means that for every $1,000 in after-tax income, Canadian families owe $1,500. The […]

We’re told to line up our debts from highest interest rate to lowest. Tackle from the top and work our way down. But what if the card at the top also happens to have the biggest balance?    A typical example may look like this: You’ve got your maxed-out HBC card, because of the holidays, […]

Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney and other policymakers have no doubt been scaring the pants off consumers who have loaded up on debt like there’s no tomorrow. Well, there is a tomorrow, and that was their aim.  But while the risk of overweight debt levels is a “significant” one to the economy, the effects […]

Any move by the Bank of Canada could “easily” cause house prices to collapse, Capital Economics warns in a bleak report that suggests the Canadian housing market is likely to suffer the same sort of crash that has plagued countries such as the United States. The report released Thursday suggests that house prices in Canada […]

Canadians are less optimistic about the outlook for the national economy and their personal financial situation in 2011 than they were last year, according to the January 2011 RBC Canadian Consumer Outlook Index (RBC CCO). Less than half (43 per cent) of Canadians feel the economy will improve over the next year, a marked decline […]