by Peter Lirantzis | Dec 25, 2020 | Blog, Economy, Homeownership, Mortgage
When discussing mortgage payments, most people focus on the interest rate. But, it’s also important to understand how the principal balance owing on your home comes into play with your monthly mortgage payment. The ‘principal’ is the amount of money you...
by Peter Lirantzis | Dec 18, 2020 | Blog, Finance, Homeownership, Mortgage
Ensuring homeownership remains an affordable option stretches well beyond monthly mortgage payments. There are numerous recurring expenses known as ‘carrying costs’ that help you maintain your investment and, therefore, must be factored into your budget to avoid...
by Peter Lirantzis | Dec 9, 2020 | Announcements
The Bank of Canada today maintained its target for the overnight rate at the effective lower bound of ¼ percent, with the Bank Rate at ½ percent and the deposit rate at ¼ percent. The Bank is maintaining its extraordinary forward guidance, reinforced and supplemented...
by Peter Lirantzis | Dec 5, 2020 | Blog, Finance, Homeownership, Mortgage
Determining what you can comfortably afford to spend on a home is important to define well before you head out home shopping. Otherwise, you could waste time looking at homes that stretch you outside your financial comfort zone or, worse yet, are completely beyond...
by Peter Lirantzis | Nov 27, 2020 | Blog, Economy, Finance
This holiday season is shaping up to be a lot different than holidays in the past thanks to COVID-19 – and especially the second wave that has seen many areas of the country hit hard with new cases. While we’re thankful for online shopping so we can still treat...
by Peter Lirantzis | Nov 20, 2020 | Blog, Economy, Finance, Homeownership, Mortgage
Becoming a First-Time Homebuyer & Landlord at Once In Canada, there are nearly 4.5 million adults and families who live in rental housing – representing approximately one third of total households. If you’re looking to purchase a home, particularly your...
by Peter Lirantzis | Nov 13, 2020 | Blog, Economy, Homeownership, Mortgage
There are a lot of unknown terms you’ll come across while buying a home – particularly as a first-time homebuyer. Two common payments that homebuyers sometimes use interchangeably, but are quite different, are “deposit” and “down payment”. Deposit When buying...
by Peter Lirantzis | Nov 6, 2020 | Blog, Homeownership, Mortgage
How Does Skipping a Mortgage Payment Work? Many lenders provide the option for you to skip a mortgage payment each year to help alleviate those tight financial months where everything seems to come due at once. But this also may be an option to help you push...
by Peter Lirantzis | Oct 23, 2020 | Announcements, Homeownership, Mortgage
The federal government introduced a six-month Mortgage Deferral Program – which officially wrapped up September 30th – to help Canadians stay in their homes while the job market recovered from COVID-19. With the deferral program coming to an end, stress has mounted...
by Peter Lirantzis | Oct 9, 2020 | Blog, Economy, Homeownership, Mortgage
Often times, when you buy a property, there’s a gap between your home’s closing date and the day in which your lender withdraws your first mortgage payment from your bank account. During those in-between days, interest is accumulated on the money you owe, and a...
