On this note, one of the Canadian national newspapers commented last summer on the explosion of the quantity of mortgage brokers in Canada. I forget the exact numbers, so I won't try to quote, but the quantity of mortgage brokers right now compared to mortgage brokers 5-10 years ago was a huge difference. In all fairness, the overall mortgage industry has changed, with brokers becoming more popular. But the stats were still quite interesting. Brokers that got into the business 5-10 years ago likely did quite well for themselves in many cases, but I sure wouldn't want to be hopping in now. I should also mention that the business model for brokers is a bit different up here in Canada than what I understand it is in the US. In the US I believe that brokers get wholesale rates and then mark them up (or charge fees to clients, or both); in Canada the brokers are compensated directly by the mortgage companies for bringing business to them.
i blame cheap easy money & low interest rates. the fed made both available to counter deflation. unfortunately the side-effect is housing prices increases [affordability at multi-decade high] and we also get inflation.
More Canadian perspective: Housing market warning 'Could be softening': Royal hints at peak as CMHC OKs 30-year mortgages http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=b593f02e-7bc1-4c5e-9356-873023d2d589 Royal Bank is one of Canada's big national banks, the more important/interesting point in this article is that CMHC will now be providing mortgage insurance for amortizations of 30 years. Our two big mortage insurance providers in Canada are CMHC (a crown corporation) and Genworth (formerly GE Capital). 30 year amortizations are not a common thing in Canada, some of the subprime lenders have recently started offering them, but CMHC doing so essentially endorses high-ratio lending to everyone using ams of 30 years.