Canadian Real Estate News Headlines (July 20th 2019)

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I provide you with Canada’s news headlines for real estate news for today.

'We felt defeated': As Toronto housing stabilizes, bidding wars make a comeback

When art director Cory Ingwersen started searching for a home in Toronto earlier this year, his hunt began in a slumping housing market.

Yet bidding war after bidding war, Ingwersen says he and his wife made multiple offers on several properties, only to be met by counter-bids that were 10 to 20 percent more than the asking price – and more than they were willing to spend.

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Mortgage stress test rules get more lenient for first time

For the first time since the government implemented new stress test rules on Canadian home loans, the bar has been lowered — meaning a would-be homebuyer could be approved for a bigger mortgage today than they would have yesterday.

The so-called stress test, formally in place since January 2018, is a financial bar that any Canadian looking to take out a mortgage must pass to be approved for one. Regardless of what deals they may have been offered by a lender in the real world, for regulators to sign off on the loan, the borrower's finances must be tested as though their mortgage rate is at a higher level. The idea is to save borrowers from biting off more debt than they can chew and ensure they have some financial wiggle room if rates rise.

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