We will tell all of our friends and family how good you folks

were to us!

Eugene & Tammy Lyons

Bloomfield Ridge, NB

OTTAWA — After months of uncertainty, the economic recovery now appears to be “solidly entrenched,” the Bank of Canada said Tuesday, indicating its forecast for growth should unfold as envisaged.

Still, in its latest interest rate announcement, the central bank reiterated, as expected, its conditional commitment to keep its key policy rate at a record low 0.25% until June 2010 as inflation is still not expected to hit its preferred 2% target until the second half of 2011.

Recent data – from retail sales to a stunningly strong jobs report for November — have painted a mostly cheer picture of the Canadian economy, analysts say, even though third-quarter GDP growth of 0.4% annualized came in well below the central bank’s 2% expectation.

Since the central bank’s latest economic forecast in October, “global economic developments have been slightly more positive and the global outlook has improved modestly,” the bank’s governing council said in its statement, adding though that “significant fragilities” remain.

The central bank said the composition of economic growth is unfolding as expected, highlighted by a shift toward stronger domestic demand and less reliance on exports.

“The main drivers and the profile of the projected recovery in Canada remain consistent with the bank’s [outlook],” it added. “The bank continues to expect economic growth to become more solidly entrenched over the projection period and inflation to return to the 2% target in the second half of 2011.”

According to the central bank’s outlook, Canada is expected to grow 3.3% this quarter, followed by expansion of 3% next year and 3.3% in 2011. Predictions for strong growth gained steam late last week when data indicated the Canadian economy added 79,000 jobs in November.

Further, the central bank on Tuesday played down the impact of the stronger dollar, even though it acknowledged it remained a key risk to its forecast, and “could act as a significant further drag” on growth and inflation. The stronger loonie, which has advanced as much as 25% this year against its U.S. counterpart, led to a surge in imports in the third quarter – resulting in net exports acting as a drag on the economy of roughly 5.3 percentage points.

Since the last rate announcement, however, the dollar has on average traded a couple of cents below the central bank’s working assumption of a US96¢ loonie.

Most analysts were looking for any change in nuance in the bank’s statement – in particular a hint or two that it might move before its conditional pledge to keep rates at a record low until June 2010 given the surge in domestic consumption as households take advantage of record low borrowing costs.

 Instead, the central bank reiterated that its target rate of 0.25% “can be expected” to remain intact until the end of the second quarter of next year. The pledge is conditional on inflation hitting the 2% target in the third quarter of 2011, as the bank expects.

The last time the bank raised its key policy rate, to 4.5%, was in July of 2007 – and shortly afterward the first signs of the credit crisis emerged.

Some economists, such as Ryan Brecht of Action Economics, expect the central bank to begin hiking its policy rate, and aggressively, starting in the second half of next year.

In a note released Tuesday morning, Mr. Brecht, the firm’s senior North American economist, said he envisaged the Bank of Canada raising its target rate by 175 basis points before December of 2010, for a policy rate of 2%, or “more normal levels.” Still, that would be below the 3% level in September of 2008, when Lehman Bros. collapsed, or the 4.5% peak hit more than two years ago.

Financial Post

We also know if there is any way possible to help a person you will do it. You are never in a hurry no matter how busy you are and always take time to have a friendly chat with us.

Thank you so much

D. Lavigne

I just wanted to send a message of appreciation to you. Recently my dad lost funding for two house mortgages because of the bankruptcy of GM. He went to all of the financing companies he has used in the past and all of them said they could finance his newest house, but he couldn’t find anyone willing to finance the second house as well. We were all worried that he was going to lose one of his houses because of a company’s mismanagement and not his own. How unfair that would have been! Anyhow, he came in to your office one day and there was a broker available to see him right away and he worked hard for Dad and found financing for both houses. We are so happy that he won’t lose anything because of other people’s negligence. I heard him say the other day that he will also recommend that my sister and her husband see you folks for financing when they purchase their new home. I know it’s nice to hear when people are pleased with your service, so I just wanted to let you know that you have a great business and the customer service is excellent from everyone in your office. We will continue to tell people about Front Gate Mortgages and hopefully we can be helpful to you as well.

Thanks for your great service to us and our parents,
T. Morgan

We didn’t know that people like you existed in the financial world or shall I say the side of the financial world that we were treated to for several weeks before I made a call to Front Gate.

So please accept these small gifts as a token of our thanks.

Kim, Dan, Nicolas, Anthony & Allison

The FredFM winners were Francis and Cathy Chambers, he was having a cancer surgery. He is off work for at least 8 weeks to recover. She had to take 3 weeks off from her job as well to stay home and help with the recovery period. They were going to have a hard time with little to no assistance. She had her name in for the “Richard and Jenn Pay your bills” promo at the radio station.

We got a call from the radio station, were it was such a large amount $796.00, so we shared the payment and we paid $398.00 and so did FredFM. Cathy brought us a card the next day and she was so appreciative.

In the second half of 2007, the Canadian economy grew broadly in line with
the Bank’s expectations in the October Monetary Policy Report (MPR). Despite
some slowing in growth in the fourth quarter, the Canadian economy continues
to operate above its production capacity. Both core and total CPI inflation
have been lower than projected in the MPR, largely reflecting a price-level
adjustment related to increased competitive pressures in the retail sector
stemming from the level of the Canadian dollar.

Financial market conditions have deteriorated since October, leading to a
tightening of credit conditions in industrial countries. Given this, and a
deeper, more prolonged decline in the U.S. residential housing sector, the
2008 outlook for the U.S. economy is now significantly weaker than at the
time of the October MPR.

For Canada, the effects of the weaker U.S. economic outlook will lead to
additional downward pressure on export growth. However, despite tighter
credit conditions, domestic demand in Canada is projected to remain strong.
This strength is supported by continued income growth associated with the
increase in commodity prices since October, which has led to further gains
in our terms of trade. Overall, the Bank now projects weaker growth in 2008
than was expected in October, with the economy moving into modest excess
supply in the second quarter of this year. Somewhat stronger growth in 2009
brings the Canadian economy back into balance in early 2010. The inflation
projection has also been revised down since October, especially for 2008,
primarily reflecting the price-level adjustment noted above and the recent
one-percentage-point cut in the GST. Both core and total CPI inflation
should fall below 1 1/2 per cent by the middle of this year before returning
to the 2 per cent target by the end of 2009. On the whole, the Bank judges
that the risks to this inflation projection are roughly balanced.

In line with this outlook, the Bank has decided to lower the target for the
overnight rate and further monetary stimulus is likely to be required in the
near term to keep aggregate supply and demand in balance and to return
inflation to target over the medium term.

The Bank’s detailed projection for the economy and inflation, and risks to
the projection, will be published in the Monetary Policy Report Update on 24
January 2008.

Your record of payment on previous and current obligations. Lenders may enquire about your record at the appropriate Credit Bureau.

The only significant item that does not usually appear on the credit report is how well you’ve made any mortgage payments in the past. If you have recently had a mortgage, the lender will call the previous mortgagee (lender) directly to confirm your history. This is called a "mortgage rating."

Income

Lenders require that you pay out no more than 27% to 35% of your provable gross income on all shelter costs. This is known as the "Gross Debt Service Ratio."

You may have other debt, of course, but in combination with shelter costs, the total of all regular payments should not exceed 37% to 42% of your income. This is the "Total Debt Service Ratio."

Down Payment

At least 5% of the value of the property in the case of a purchase, (with a default-insured mortgage), should come from your own savings.

Job Stability

Quite a separate issue from the amount and type of income is "how stable is the flow of income?" While exceptions are usually made, lenders generally look for several years in the same company, or progressive income increases in a succession of related jobs.

This is a one-time insurance premium you pay when buying a home with less than 25% down payment, or in a few other situations where a lender is not willing to take all the risk of lending you money. Some examples of this might be:

• a non-standard dwelling such as a mobile home on leased land.
• a rural property with non-standard utilities (well and septic systems).
• a multiple-unit dwelling where you may or may not be occupying one of the units.

Insurance premium is standard, and on a sliding scale according to the percentage of the property value you wish to finance with this mortgage.

Mortgage Life Insurance

This is simply regular life insurance which is used to ensure that, in the event of the death of either of the borrowers, the mortgage will be paid off in full from the proceeds. Since this is not mandatory, an important question to ask of any lender who offers it is "who is the beneficiary?". If the lender is the beneficiary, it can be used by them to retire the mortgage in full…which may not be the survivor’s desired course of action, particularly if the mortgage is at a much lower rate than the survivor can earn after tax on investments. Mortgage Fire Insurance

All lenders, without exception, require that a fire insurance policy be in effect at the time they fund a mortgage…for the obvious reason that if an uninsured house burns down on a property they have mortgaged, the only remaining value is in the land. While this may not actually cause a loss directly, (due to the high value of many lots) the funds will be unavailable to reconstruct the building, and thus force a sale or re-mortgaging.

Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance

In recent years, it has become possible to buy income protection insurance specifically to ensure mortgage payments can be maintained in the event of not only disability (now a standard product), but also loss of employment.