Real-estate craziness

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about the benefits of home ownership.

Recent events have driven home the importance of family, stability, and security, mostly highlighting how important these are to children particularly.

The recent increase to the stress test rate has moved the goal posts yet a little further away for many families.

During the last few weeks, I tried to connect with my clients that had pre-approvals to ensure they were aware their potential price point had dropped.

The timing of the roll out of this increase was interesting. I had already felt a little softening in our market. Although still busy, I think more clients are taking a breath and stepping away from the craziness that we’ve seen during the last few months.

My hope is that we see the process of buying a home go back to a more balanced journey.

In the olden days (say three or four years ago), clients would view multiple homes in a few weeks or months and find one that they loved.

They would present an offer, generally lower than the asking price, and counter back and forth several times with the sellers until both parties agreed on the price and closing date.

That left a reasonable number of days for:

• Their subject removal
• Their mortgage person would be able to arrange suitable financing
• They would have time to organize a home inspection and their home insurance.

Heck, they might even have time to read their new financing documents before they signed.

I have seen some crazy displays during the last 1½ years.

• People writing offers significantly over the asking price with no conditions.
• People buying homes that might not be the best fit out of desperation as they couldn’t get in fast enough to write offers.
• People jeopardizing their financial futures just trying to have their offer be accepted.

This craziness has heightened the stress level for almost everyone involved in the process.

During the last two months, I’ve seen multiple mortgage brokers and lender staff members leave the industry as they don’t want to deal with the stress anymore.

Owning a home in Canada is, of course, a privilege, not a right. However, for me, the ability to own a home and provide a stable foundation for my children is one of the reasons that I am so grateful to live where I do.

I sincerely hope that our market swings back to a more level and reasonable playing field so that more families are able to provide stability and security for their children and themselves.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.