Mar 18, 2013, Brokers pursue mortgage break for first-time home buyers

TARA PERKINS, The Globe and Mail
Published Sunday, Mar. 10 2013, 6:23 PM EDT
Last updated Tuesday, Mar. 12 2013, 9:02 AM EDT

Mortgage brokers are pressing the federal government to make it easier for young people to buy their first homes, just as the spring sales season descends and Ottawa prepares its next budget.

Jim Murphy, the head of the Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals, recently met with finance department officials in a bid to convince them that their efforts to cool the housing market have gone too far, especially when it comes to the impact on first-time buyers.

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An open house sign is seen on Westmoreland Avenue in Toronto in this 2012 file photo.
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For sale signs sit on the lawns of two houses that were sold and one still for sale in the Kitsilano neighborhood in Vancouver, B.C., on Tuesday September 18, 2012.
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Salem Woodrow, 25, has no doubts about what she wants: a house built between 1980 and 2005, somewhere in Calgary’s south, with a final price tag no higher than $350,000. Originally from Winnipeg, she and partner Ryan Mayman, 28, think they’ll be living in Calgary for at least five more years. And with a sizable down payment, they’re continuing in their search for a home despite lingering fears about overinflated real estate values and the health of the province’s economy. “I always have my doubts about the economy, so it always makes me step back and think, ‘well maybe we wait six months,’ ” says Ms. Woodrow. “But at the same time, I don’t believe that the economy will change so much that it will seriously affect my purchase.”
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“March, April and May are the most important months for both new sales and re-sales,” said Mr. Murphy. “And the market is slowing.”

The government has deliberately taken measures to cool the growth of house prices and mortgage debt levels four times since the financial crisis, amid fears that it was heating up too quickly.

The most recent measures, which took effect in July, included chopping the maximum length of insured mortgages to 25 years from 30.