A faith in rates and a thriving B lender channel is keeping a good slice of the pie available to mortgage brokers, says Joe Walsh.
A faith in rates and a thriving B lender channel is keeping a good slice of the pie available to mortgage brokers, says Joe Walsh.
“The alternative lenders are going gangbusters,” says Walsh, a broker with Bedrock Financial Group, Dominion Lending Centres. “The B lender business is definitely helping brokers.”
Walsh admits that the overall mortgage market “pie” is smaller, with banks and brokers fighting hard for every client – clients are itching to jump back into the market after taking a pause in 2012.
“Let’s face it, 20 per cent of the business that used to be with the A lenders has been gobbled up by the alternatives – and we will see more lenders go into that market,” he told MortgageBrokerNews.ca.
According to a recent CIBC poll, more Canadians than ever believe rates will remain the same for 2013, and they are ready to get back into the housing market.
“Canadians are getting more and more complacent on interest rates,” says Walsh. “Two or three times they’ve been told it is going up and up, and it never does. I blame the media for hitting people over the head with dire predictions of the housing bubble about to burst.”
The poll, conducted by Harris/Decima, shows 46 per cent of Canadians believe rates will remain unchanged over the next year, up from 24 per cent who thought rates would remain low when the same poll was conducted two years ago.
It is the current low rates that will help fuel the spring market, says Walsh.
“The spring will be okay. Why would people rent when they can get a $1,400 mortgage for a $300,000 home?” he asks. “All they have to do is keep their job and buy within a budget.”
Other poll results showed that among 25-34 year olds, 54 per cent would choose a fixed-rate mortgage, compared to the overall average of 45 per cent who would do the same. That overall number is down from 2012, where 50 per cent of those polled were leaning towards fixed-rate mortgages.
