MORTGAGE MATTERS
To understand reverse mortgages and most aspects of home ownership, a solid understanding of mortgages is essential. Reverse Mortgages: Best Friend, Worst Enemy...Your Choice! includes a primer on mortgages presented as a comparison between key features of traditional and reverse mortgages, and an exploration of mortgage lenders. This information is vital to understanding reverse mortgages and home equity management, but it is not all there is to know about mortgages and mortgage lending.

Eric Lascelles, Chief Canada Macro Strategist for TD Securities, recently published a terrific 18-page, ebook called the Canadian Mortgage Market Primer, which is an excellent overview of mortgages in Canada.

Podcast attached: Lascelles said he was prompted to compile the Canadian Mortgage Market Primer as a “so what’s it all about?” overview of Canada’s mortgage market to satisfy growing interest from international clients. The apparent stability of Canada’s banks and housing markets is puzzling to them in the face of international financial collapse. Canada-watchers “were worried the Canadian market would be in trouble down the road.”

Lascelles explained that the Primer covers “the real details, the plumbing of this market.”  He emphasized that the point was not to argue that the market was good or bad, but to clarify financial basics, reveal the elements of stability, and explain how everything fits together. 

• The Canadian Mortgage Market Primer: www.td.com/economics/special/el0610_cdn_mort_market.pdf

• Download | Duration: 00:09:30

       Listen to Eric Lascelles discuss the mortgage market and The Canadian Mortgage Market Primer .

• On October 6, 2010, an article based on the Primer and the Lascelles Podcast will be posted on my column "Decisions & Communities": http//realtytimes.com/rtpages/pjwade.htm