New Mortgage Rules in Effect

Ottawa is changing mortgage rules again to make it more difficult for Canadians with limited savings to buy homes, or obtain loans.

As of June 21, 2012, these are the new changes to mortgage rules:

#1)  The amortization period on a mortgage will be dropped from the current 30 years to 25 years.
The amortization period is the estimated number of years it will take to pay off your mortgage entirely. The longer your amortization is, the lower your mortgage payments will be, but the higher the total amount of interest you'll pay over the life of the mortgage

#2) The government is limiting refinancing loans to 80 per cent of the value of a home, from the current 85 per cent.

#3) You will need to have a 20% down payment to purchase a home worth more than $1 million or have to seek private insurance.

View the CBC News report on the new mortgage changes.