NEWS FROM "THE HOUSE TEAM"

Canadians have every intention of keeping up the feverish pace of mortgage borrowing.

The nation's total mortgage credit will rise by 10 per cent to $808-billion by the end of 2007, a new survey says.“The Canadian mortgage market remains exceedingly robust,” said Paul Grewal,
president of the Canadian Institute of Mortgage Brokers and Lenders, which released an analysis of its survey of 1,717 Canadians last week.

“The housing market remains very active,” Mr. Grewal said.“In addition, new lenders and mortgage insurers have entered the market, increasing Canadians' options for mortgage products.” But homeowners are becoming less inclined to borrow extra when they're renewing their mortgages, the survey found.

In the year leading up to September, 2005, 40 per cent of those who renewed or refinanced their mortgages increased the amount they were borrowing. The average extra loan was $25,100. But in the 12 months preceding September, 2006, only 33 per cent raised the amount.

Those who did borrowed an average of $26,100 more. Increasingly cautious Canadians are also shopping around for lower rates, the survey found. More are consulting mortgage brokers instead of just going to their financial institutions — 31 per cent did so this year, compared with 25 per cent in 2005.

And because they are negotiating for better deals, Canadians are enjoying an average mortgage interest rate of 5.05 per cent — well below the posted rates of major banks and trust companies.

“Competition is certainly a feature that shines through in this survey,” Mr. Grewal said. CIMBL reported that 66 per cent of Canadian residential mortgages are fixed-rate, 22 per cent are variable-rate and the remainder are a combination of the two. The most popular term continues to be five years.