Jim Flaherty may be about to beat the hell out of any housing boom!
It will be interesting to see the fallout from his new mortgage "rules"!

Do not expect any new homeowners for a while. My brother in-law went for a mortgage and the bank wants 20% down. End of story! Save some money if you want to buy a house. 20% of a 250,000.00 house is 50 thousand dollars. Have fun with that! Once the HST comes in it will be even worse for new home buyers due to the extra 12%. If you want to sell your home you better get it up for sale now. I feel so bad for our young who are now entering their time to build a family and home. We ruined the future for our children and grandchildren. At least we were able to work, have children and buy a home. That is not possible unless you are rich now. Basically what we are left with is working your whole life to pay for the greed in politics and their non-stoppable spending. They eat the caviar that our children will pay for. Nice future our youth have to look forward to. So sad….

20% down is probably to high, however 10% would be reasonable. The reason for the restrictions on mortages is because interest rates are going to go up this summer, and could go even higher the following year. People who get in with 5% will be in a difficult situation when interests rates go up.

The idea that all people can afford to buy a house is misleading. Anyone making less than $30,000.00 per year never could afford one, thats why we have rentals, and apartments.

People have very short memories. Have you all forgetton the high interest rates of the early eighties. Up to approx 18%. How many of these people will be able to pay for their homes if the rates rise again.??? And they could. How many people will lose their homes???

Well said Palopu...and when those interest rates do go up soon,it will be a blood bath in the housing market!
That will be a dark contrast to realtors telling people to buy now!...hurry,the interest rates are great...never been cheaper..buy,buy!
And then it comes time to renew your mortgage!
Poof!
Nobody mentioned that part!

There is no reason for a first time home buyer to spend more then 250,000 on their first house. There are almost 300 houses on the market in PG for less then 250,000. People need to stop spending beyond their means and requiring a down payment is a good way to force people to think about what they need, rather then what they want. If you can't save for at least 10%, or 20% if you have a poor credit history - you can't afford the house.

Well a financial guy said before Christmas that the commercial industry would be next to feel the wrath. He suggested that a lot of retailers were just hanging on for the Xmas rush in hopes of recouping some of their losses. Then they would close. I cannot remember his name but he is always on Global news at lunch time. I know of two stores in the process right now. I am not sure if another strip mall or box store is what is needed. I do not know what the near future has in store but I do have a feeling that it is far from rosy. I hope I am wrong. I would be careful of any propaganda that spew that things are looking up. The markets are far from stable. Up and down like a yoyo. People,cities,countries and governments are in huge financial debt and the only companies in the black are banks. Boasting every quarter of billions in profits. It is almost unbelievable that they would even tell us. We are in trouble and governments on all three levels will not stop the spending spree. The government has ballooned out of proportion to the point where some have nothing to do all day. Where three men did the same job 20 years ago there are now 7. And this is something I know for certain to be true. And this is at the bottom of the pecking order. The waste even higher up would make us hard working people sick. We pay for an entity to suck us dry. They have better retirements along with awesome medical. And most of us avoid the dentist because even 20% is too much. I worked hard most of my life and have no perky retirement but was forced to pay someone else’s who makes 4 times my wage. I really do not understand why more people are not outraged? Nothing is said. They rob us in front of us and we say and do nothing. Sit there and just think about what future the people who are just turning 20 have. Most can kiss ever earning a house because most cannot even afford to continue their education. If they do they come out in debt. Big debt! I know a young man who has a $500.00 student loan payment a month. This is wrong people. We pay for landed immigrant’s education, yet most of our children are struggling to continue theirs. Look what has become to schools, hospitals and people in general. My guess is that we pay out with all the hidden taxes over 55%. All the utilities have increased their rates just about every year. Even in the midst of a recession. There is so much more but it would take too long. LOL We need to stand up for our children’s future if not for our own. Have a nice night all.

If a young person gets into a house despite the mortgage business; they are then faced with being gouged on the utility bills and city taxes which just keep getting more absurd every couple of months.
The only thing still going for PG are the yet low prices for a modest home. A $250g house in PG is $400+g in Kelowna.

20% is for those buying an investment home. Still 5% for 1st timers.

House prices should be on their way down with the new regs coming into effect and interest rates going up Hang on first time home buyers!

The 5% for first timers will be history very soon.

Caringsoul has it right. We are paying huge dollars in taxes to 3 levels of Government and they are screwing us to death. We need to somehow get this turned around.

The first thing we need to do is to stop this HST. We need to send the message to Government that we have had it. NO MORE tax increases. Governments have to learn to reduce their costs through service reductions. This really is not hard to do, the problem is there is no will to do it.

We are in a terrible situation, and the people who are responsible for a lot of the problems, and the high costs are the Governments themselves.

The only thing that Goverments understand is losing at the polls. If we want to get the attention of the Liberal Government, then we need to get the HST petition signed and forwarded to the Government, stating that we want the HST recinded. This would be a direct message to the Government, and if they choose to ignore it, then they can suffer the consequences at the next election.

We cannot continue to sit on our butts and lament about the hardtimes and do nothing.

If anyone wants to get involved in having the HST recinded I suggest that you go to ***fightHST.com*** on the internet and get started. We can indeed make a difference if we make the effort.

Once the Government sees that people are sick and tired of their BS they will be less inclined to carry on with their less than stellar performance.

Other levels of Government will also take note right across the Country if we can kill this legislation, or recall some MLA"S, or win the case in court.

"Once the HST comes in it will be even worse for new home buyers due to the extra 12%"

There won't be an extra 12%. You already pay 5% GST on new housing so in some cases there may be an extra 7%. I say some cases because there are also rebates built into the proposed HST so in some cases you may end up paying no more in HST than you do in GST. Generally speaking though, yes, I would suggest that the average tax paid will increase on an average valued new home. It won't be 12% more though.

"I feel so bad for our young who are now entering their time to build a family and home. We ruined the future for our children and grandchildren. At least we were able to work, have children and buy a home. That is not possible unless you are rich now"

I'm one of those younger guys and trust me, you have nothing to feel bad about. The future job opportunities available to younger people coming into the workforce are likely to be unprecedented. We'll benefit from the sheer void being left by the baby boomers who have already left and will be leaving the workforce. I see HUGE opportunity ahead and not bad times.

"The idea that all people can afford to buy a house is misleading. Anyone making less than $30,000.00 per year never could afford one, thats why we have rentals, and apartments"

I agree 100%.

"There is no reason for a first time home buyer to spend more then 250,000 on their first house. There are almost 300 houses on the market in PG for less then 250,000. People need to stop spending beyond their means"

I agree 110%. I know people who could best be described as average middle class families who either live in or are looking to buy half million dollar homes. Only 20 years ago, these types of homes would have been what the "rich" would live in and a home in Lower College Heights would be your average family dwelling. People have gone completely nuts in regards to what they think they are entitled to and/or what they envision they can afford.

"My guess is that we pay out with all the hidden taxes over 55%"

So you are saying that the average person making 50K a year is paying out 28K a year in taxes? LOL, you can't be serious!

I have to thank NMG for thoughtfully bringing some intellegence to this chicken little "the sky is falling" debate.

Buy someones mortgage instead of a house. Then yer on easy street.