When it comes to language like credit ratings, mortgage terms and amortization, we can get a little hazy on the details . . .
It’s probably both your biggest liability and your greatest asset, but how much do you really know about your mortgage and whether you’re making the best decisions possible about it?
According to a survey by Genworth Financial Canada, most of us could use a little more education around mortgages and the home-buying process.
It conducted a national online survey with 1,500 first-time homebuyers last fall and found only 25 per cent could correctly answer more than seven out of 10 questions in a mortgage quiz – and only 1 per cent got them all correct.
When it comes to language like credit ratings, mortgage terms, variable or fixed interested rates, amortization, default insurance and debt-service ratio, we get a little hazy on the details.
Part of it could be complacency brought on by contentment. A survey by the Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals (CAAMP) last year found 84 per cent of Canadians are “satisfied” with the terms of their mortgages, with 26 per cent saying they are “highly satisfied.”
Just 12 per cent are neutral and 5 per cent are dissatisfied to some degree, the survey found.
The high scores are partly driven by the fact we’re enjoying the lowest interest rates in decades. The same survey taken in the 1980s when mortgage rates hit 18 per cent probably wouldn’t elicit such high levels of satisfaction.
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