Mortgage Loan Insurance is meant to shield the borrower from default on the borrower’s part, both straightforward and easy. However, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has built mortgage loan insurance to cover more than just banks. The CMHC needed homeowners to be better able to reach the housing market at an earlier time and better results. After all, more privately-owned housing means more employment, more market activity, more money invested, and so on. If there are more jobs and more investment, the economy will gain. In short, the risk to lenders has been eliminated, leaving them in a stronger position to offer lower interest rates and lower payments.
When the CMHC developed its Mortgage Loan Insurance (MLI) plan, it had a stipulation that if the borrower had less than 20% of the purchase price as a down payment, the insurance was necessary. Before introducing MLI, the Canadian Bank Act restricted federally controlled lending institutions from lending to those with less than 20% of loans. Banks will now fund up to 95 percent of the purchase price, given that MLI is purchased. The move meant that so many more people, who had previously given up on owning a house, now had hope.
MLI offers choices for those who already own a house for those who want to renovate, refinance, or move to another place. CMHC MLI’s are portable from an existing home to a newly purchased one, often without paying the initial premium for a new home. Besides, self-employed individuals looking to fund the purchase of a new home are now in a position to do so without offering conventional forms of proof of income. And those new to Canada are eligible. Current homeowners who choose to integrate energy-efficient elements into their home (the NRCan Energy Assessment Rating must increase by at least five points) are entitled to an extended amortization period-without a surcharge and with a 10% insurance premium rebate. There are also more incentives for borrowers to buy a second home or income land.
Now that we know the value of MLI, how do we translate it into numbers? Ok, it depends on a few equations, for instance. Your lender will do it for you, but if you want an idea ahead of time, start measuring the Gross Debt Service (GDS). The GDS estimates the most expenses you can afford per month, particularly those related to running your house. The cumulative GDS need not be more than 32% of your gross household income to apply for an MLI. Next is your Total Debt Service (TDS) estimation, which calculates the most debt cost your payment can cover. The TDS should not be more than 40% of your total monthly household income. Use the online mortgage calculator to enter the details and your gross monthly income, along with other factors, and you will be presented with the maximum allowable mortgage you apply for.
The MLI premium rate will then be measured as a percentage of the overall loan, taking into account the down payment size. For example, if you need the lender to fund 80% of the property’s cost, your fee would be 1 % of the total loan. If the purchase requires 95 percent of the lender’s funding, the price would be 2.75 percent of the total amount of the loan. The lower the sum financed, the lower the insurance premium.
Also, the harder homeowners work to pay off their mortgage, the more equity they create in their house. The ability to buy earlier than was traditionally feasible (through the MLI), homeowners took the opportunity to go faster than even the lender had expected. As of 2009, the CMHC estimated that Canadian homeowners’ equity status was, on average, 74 percent, while that of its American counterparts was 43 percent. The importance of the MLI is obvious now.
