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Wage Growth Accelerates as Canada Posts Another Stellar Jobs Report in October The expected slowdown in the Canadian labour market did not materialize in October as full-time jobs surged and wage gains accelerated. Total employment increased by 35,300 last month and the unemployment rate rose a tick to 6.3% as the labour force participation rate edged up a bit to 65.7%–well above the level in the U.S. Full-time jobs rose 88,700 while part-time jobs fell by 53,400–evidence of strong improvement in the quality of net-new job creation. Canada has added 201K full-time jobs in just the past two months, the strongest...

You just got a mortgage. Now what? Mortgages are a funny thing. On the one hand they allow you to become a home owner without saving up enough money to purchase the home outright, which is a really good thing. On the other hand, even at today’s really low interest rates, as they are amortized over a really long time (most of the time 25 years), they can cost you a lot more money in the long run. With the government tightening mortgage qualification, chances are securing your most recent mortgage wasn’t a painless process. So now that you finally have a...

How to Get a Mortgage After Bankruptcy Bankruptcy is always the last resort-and it’s never easy or comfortable. However, sometimes it is the only option to turn to when life throws you something unexpected. The lasting impression it can have on one’s financial profile though can be overwhelming. If you have bankruptcy in your past, don’t fear-we have 6 steps to take to help get you back on track and qualifying for your mortgage! Step 1: Get official discharge quickly. The quicker you are discharged from your bankruptcy, the quicker you can start rebuilding your credit. This starts with finding a good bankruptcy trustee....

Decision Day At The Fed The policymakers at the U.S. central bank decided to leave the target range for the federal funds rate (equivalent to the Bank of Canada overnight rate) unchanged at 1 to 1-1/4 percent acknowledging that the stance of monetary policy remains accommodative. This stance will allow the labour markets in the U.S., which are already very close to full employment, to continue to improve and return inflation, which has been below target, to return to a sustained level of 2 percent. Unlike the Bank of Canada that has the single objective of 2 percent inflation, the Federal Reserve...

Most working Canadians have an income range in the middle class. This income class includes teachers, firefighters, plumbers, engineers, nurses, construction managers and chefs – workers from across the economic spectrum. They provide and consume the bulk of services that keep society afloat, driving economic growth and investment with every purchase. The middle class also has great challenges. Wages have been stagnant and the cost of housing and everyday goods puts a squeeze on the average budget, leaving six out of 10 Canadians living paycheque-to-paycheque with most accumulating debt. In part, this has to do with everyday life and the growing demands on...

I’ve heard brokers say more than once that mortgages are a commodity, by definition a commodity is a basic good used in commerce that is interchangeable with other commodities of the same type. That doesn’t sound like mortgages to me. While the core product is always the same, money lent that is secured by real estate, the nuances of a mortgage can vary a lot. When we look at what the client is looking to do with that property and what their life style is composed of, we have to be sure that we aren’t just placing them for the sake...