Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) recently published its Consumer Survey for 2015 and sheds some interesting trends. Here’s a summary of what Canadians are doing with their mortgage. When you understand people’s habits around financing, it can help you get a better mortgage. Here’s a summary of the report…
Renewing your mortgage
We have always found it ironic that the majority of people renew their mortgage directly with their existing lender. In many cases they end up with higher rates than necessary. The numbers are staggering – while mortgage brokers command 55% of the first-time buyer market, they only capture 21% of the renewal market.
Over 60% of respondents said they renewed early in order to avoid a rate increase. Mortgage lenders often use fear in order to get people to lock into a fixed rate product. If you’ve read some of our recent articles and blogs, you’d realize that we won’t see any significant rate increases for a while.
If you are renewing, you would be wise to keep your mortgage payment the same even though you could have a lower payment. This will allow you to pay the mortgage off quicker.
Mortgage brokers and the banks
I’ve seen some mortgage professionals who work for the banks in fact call themselves mortgage brokers. While banks provide good service, they certainly can’t provide the same level of options as brokers can.
Eighty percent of respondents in the CMHC report said they were happy with their experience using a broker. The data we’ve collected at The Mortgage Centre shows our clients are over 90% happy with our service and will tell their friend and family about us. That couldn’t happen without a lot of hard work and commitment from our team.
The main reasons why people use a mortgage brokers are to get great interest rates, and the relationship they have with their broker. Consumers feel that brokers truly care about their financial well-being.
Seventy eight percent of people started their search for information on-line according to the survey results. I have seen other survey results push that number up in the 85% range. The main factor is age: the younger the borrower the more likely they are to start on-line. We’re updating our site www.skipthebank.ca with facts and useful information on a regular basis because of this.
The survey recently became available on the web at www.CMHC.ca – please check it out you are interested and feel free to contact us if you would like more information about the results or mortgages in general. We are happy to help.