Is it time to look north to our neighbor? Unlike most banks in the United States, Canada's banks are not experiencing gut-wrenching adjustments. A main reason is that Canada does not have a heavy regulatory hand that forces its banks to engage in high risk loans to promote equality of outcome. With the exception of Alberta, Canadian banks are not constrained by non-recourse paper the way American banks are. In Canada, banks can seek other assets of the borrower in the event a foreclosure does not satisfy the amount stated in the note.
Clearly, in Canada buyers have a bigger stake in the transaction and are going to think twice, or three times before walking away from their home. Food for thought, or just a feeble exercise in comparative political economies?
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