40 Year Mortgages are now in Canada

Well it’s official 40 year mortgages have been in Canada for about 6 months now. On June 20, 2006 Wells Fargo became “the first lender to offer nationwide to Canadian consumers a mortgage with a 40-year amortization". Since then virtually all of the major mortgage players in Canada are offering similar products. The timing seems impeccable given what’s currently happening in the United States mortgage market. Now everyone, even those who probably shouldn’t have a mortgage, can afford to buy a house in Canada. Although I disagree with 40 year mortgages in principle and under no circumstances would consider one for myself I’m not complaining as I currently have a significant amount of my portfolio in Canadian financial companies and any chance they get to increase earnings is fine by me. The disadvantages of 40 year mortgages are obvious (from the borrowers point of view) but just to drive the point home here is a little example of how much a 40 year mortgage would actually cost you.

Amount Borrowed: $300,000
Mortgage Rate: 6%
Amortization Period: 40 Years
Payment Frequency: Monthly

Given the above scenario you would have paid a whopping $784,926.71 over the 40 years with $484,926.41 of that being interest. Now if you were to take the same mortgage and amortize it over 25 years you would only be paying $575, 828.93 with only $275,828.3 of that being interest. By amortizing over 25 years you would only pay an extra $280 monthly on your mortgage but save over $209,000 in additional interest payments.

If you want a little more information on the subject Ellen Roseman from the Toronto Star wrote a great article that you can view by clicking here.