Why You Should Consolidate Your Debt and Maybe Buy a House Now

Why You Should Consolidate Your Debt and Maybe Buy a House Now.

     If you have equity in your house. (Equity is the amount between how much you owe  on a mortgage and what your home would sell for or market value.) eg $200,000 home $100,000 mortgage = $100,000 equity.
     If you have any credit card debt you are paying a much higher interest rate than you would pay with a mortgage. The savings could be substantial.
Check this out
                         Bank of Montreal, Canada’s fourth-biggest bank, dropped the rate for a five-year fixed-rate mortgage by 50 basis points, or 0.5 percentage points, to 2.99 percent on Jan. 12, the lowest in its 195-year history. Toronto-Dominion and Royal Bank, Canada’s two-biggest lenders, followed suit the next day with the same rate on a fixed four-year loan. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, the fifth-biggest bank, matched the offers yesterday, as did Bank of Nova Scotia today.

                 The lowest in it’s 195 year history !!!!  Lower interest rates than your parents or grand parents or probably even great grand parents ever had. No matter what the pundits say about not borrowing how can taking advantage of the cheapest mortgage money in 195 years be a mistake. Quite simply it is not a mistake but just good business. Here in Nova Scotia we have about 12 to 18 months before the ship building contract starts to impact on housing prices. Halifax is also on the verge of a building boom with many projects in the works and developers will want to lock in their mortgages at these low rates. If you plan to buy a house now is the time. Two years from now you could be sorry you waited. The Federal government may move to restrict mortgage money again making it harder to buy a home.  Right now locally we have a buyers market but listing inventories are getting lower as buyers moved into the marketplace after the ship building announcement.  I personally sold 5 homes to young people working out west over the past two months. Economic activity is as much about attitude and perception as it is reality. People now have the perception Nova Scotia is going to prosper. Attitudes are changing and the perception of prosperity will create the reality of prosperity.  Now we just need our provincial government to step up to the plate for small business and our local bankers to loosen the purse strings. What good are low interest rates if they are not lending. Some confidence and a change in mind set are required for what is looking like a much better future for Nova Scotian’s in the coming years. If that is to materialize all the positive attitude in the world will not overcome poor political leadership and conservative bankers combined. Too much red tape and lack of working capital has and will continue to cripple small business owners. Now is the time to change all that. As always just my opinion and no offence to all the good lenders I know and admire. First time buyers and real estate investors take heed. Remember these sayings. If you snooze you loose and The early bird gets the worm. Call your bank or mortgage broker and then your realtor(R) and Get The Ball Rolling !!!! or just call me and I'll get it rolling for you.


Larry Matthews