Mortgage Brokers: "Don't tighten mortgage rules"

Read this article and shake your head, from mortgage broker news " Brokers taking up association's call to arms"

CAAMP’s campaign encouraging brokers to speak out against possible mortgage rule changes is beginning to bear fruit, as an Ontario brokerage has added its voice to the growing lobbying effort.

“The industry has been seeing a lot of changes that have only done harm. We’re not, as brokers, uniting as we should be and we’re not speaking out,” says Syndicate Mortgages CEO Marcus Arkan.

In a message to its members, CAAMP says mortgage volume has decreased in the last two years due to tightening of lending criteria and if the market becomes stricter it will weaken the housing market and have a direct effect on the economy.

Some people just don't get it.  Household debt is the number one domestic threat to Canada's economy but we need to get the mortgage machine primed?  Year over year mortgage credit growth grew faster in the month of Jan 2012, than in any one month in 2010.  To say that mortgage volume has decreased compared to two years ago is misleading.

Even if the Feds "tighten" mortgage rules again, I doubt they do anything drastic to crimp the market.

In 2003, buyers could get a max mortgage for 25 years with 5% down with a mortgage price ceiling of just under $400,000.  Meaning CMHC would not insure mortgages over $400,000.  And mortgage rules back then were not "restrictive".  Getting rid of cash back mortgages and reverting back to 2003 mortgage rules would be a step in the right direction.  Mortgage debt growth has to slow, the Feds know this.