The Angela Calla Mortgage Team is committed to giving you information in real time so you can use it to your advantage. By contacting us today to see what your options are under the current guidelines we can help you renew or refinance your current mortgage today before these policies come into place by years end. If you have questions on your mortgage, or for someone that you care about, please call or e-mail us today.

Stricter Debt Ratio Standards on the Way

If you’re a typical borrower, your debt ratio’s will largely determine if you’re approved for a mortgage.

For applicants who push the limits of qualification, those approvals have been tougher to come by. That’s a direct result of last year’s mortgage rule tightening, which imposed stricter debt ratio calculations (among other things).

And by year-end, those calculations will get even more conservative.

On June 27, CMHC issued new guidelines for calculating debt ratios and confirming income documents.

“Under current practice, CMHC stipulates standard formulas for calculation of debt service ratios but has not been specific as to how each key input is to be treated,” says CMHC spokesman Charles Sauriol.

These new guidelines will clarify that, and they become effective on CMHC-insured mortgages on December 31, 2013. (In practice, many lenders already apply them.)

These standards will apply to all insured 1-4 unit residential mortgages, regardless of the loan-to-value ratio. Uninsured (conventional) mortgages are allowed different policies, but most lenders will use the same rules for all their approvals.

Here are some of CMHC’s newly minted insured mortgage “clarifications” that will have the largest impact on your borrowing abilities:

• For variable income: Lenders must use “an amount not exceeding the average income of the past two years.” Variable refers to things like bonuses, tips, seasonal employment and investment income.
• For guarantor income:  A guarantor’s income must not be used in GDS/TDS ratios “unless the guarantor…occupies the home and is the spouse or common-law partner of the borrower.”
• Unsecured credit lines & credit cards: For these debts, “No less than 3% of the outstanding balance” must be included in monthly debt payments. Interest-only payments are no longer considered on credit lines. Furthermore, lenders must assess the borrower’s credit history and borrowing behaviour when determining the amount of revolving credit that should be accounted for in debt ratios.
• Secured lines of credit:  Lenders must factor in “the equivalent” of a payment that’s based on “the outstanding balance amortized over 25 years.” That payment must use the contract rate (of the LOC) or the 5-year Benchmark rate (V121764) published by Bank of Canada (if the contract rate is unknown). Again, interest-only payments are no longer allowed for debt ratio calculation purposes.
• Heating costs:  Lenders must now obtain the “actual heating cost records” of a property. When no such history is available, the heat expense used in debt ratio calculations “must be a reasonable estimate taking into consideration factors such as property size, location and/or type of heating system.” That’s why some lenders have now moved to a set heating cost formula, like:

         (square footage x $0.75) / 12 months

Compared to past methods (which entailed flat heating costs, like $100/month), the new guidelines can double or triple the heating cost that must be factored into debt ratios on larger properties, and reduce it on smaller ones.

It’s important to repeat that most of these policies are already being followed by most lenders. But there are exceptions.

Those exception-case lenders are commonly viewed as go-to sources when borrowers have tight debt ratios. These new guidelines are designed to minimize those “loopholes.”

All of this has come about, in part, because of Ottawa’s rule changes last July. At that time, the government fixed the maximum Gross Debt Service and Total Debt Service ratios for insured mortgages at 39% and 44% respectively.

Sauriol says that change “reinforces the importance for CMHC to ensure that debt service ratios provide the same measure of a specific borrower’s ability to service the mortgage debt, regardless of the lender submitting the application to CMHC for insurance.”

Courtesy of CMT

Angela Calla, AMP

Dominion Lending Centres-Angela Calla Mortgage Team

Host of The Mortgage Show Saturdays at 7pm on CKNW AM980

Phone: 604-802-3983 Fax: 604-939-8795

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Reach my Team Chris Adkins & Denzil Anderson at 604-939-8777 & callateam2@dominionlending.ca