Worrying about mortgage burdens late in life is becoming a national pastime. With Canada's oppressive cost of living and tax burdens, plus poor savings habits, homeowners increasingly fear their mortgage will outlast them.

While such realities may keep people in debt longer and boost industry mortgage volumes, it’s hardly the ideal societal outcome.

Earlier this year, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) conducted a survey that revealed intriguing trends about late-in-life mortgages. Here's what they found, along with specific ways that mortgage advisors can turn these trends into a business model.

Many mortgage experts can ballpark debt ratio calculations in their heads.

Meanwhile, first-time buyers often don't know the difference between GDS and GPS.

That's a problem that Canadians need to solve every time they go home hunting.

Usually, they call a broker or lender to tell them if/when they're qualified to buy. But Homie's got another idea: use its free app.

The company says its app shows first-time buyers what they can afford in about three minutes.

For more on how it pulls that off, and who might care, read on.

Inflation gave the rate market a breather, undershooting estimates on both headline and average core measures. But this is not a dovish report. Thus, Macklem’s finger is probably closer to the snooze button than the rate cut button.

Canadian rates nudged higher ahead of the most critical report of the month: domestic CPI.

Bay Street expects the key inflation gauges to keep drifting apart, with a:

• 1-tick slowdown in headline inflation to 1.8% (prior 1.9%)
• ½-tick acceleration in average core inflation to 3.1% (prior 3.05%)

We’ll return with the full play-by-play after StatCan hits “Send” at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Last week's Canadian macro calendar was enough to put people to sleep.

On Tuesday, however, we get a wake-up call: July CPI.

Traders will be locked on the data, waiting to see if Canada's price level momentum speeds up further—as it's doing south of the border.

More Canadian homebuyers tiptoed into the market last month. It was enough for realtors to claim a small victory and give lenders a lift in purchase business.

The sales uptick drew applause from the real estate cheering section, even though month-over-month price moves—in most markets (not all)—ranged from half-hearted to clinically depressed.

For more, here's the monthly read of CREA data, reality check included.

If you’ve been around the mortgage game long enough to remember when people still used fax machines, Greg Williamson has likely crossed your radar. He used to be a broker, then he got into broker training with 180 Degrees Coaching, then he co-founded Finmo in 2017, then he sold it to Lendesk in 2020.

Now he’s returned, launching a YouTube broker help series called the Inspired Founders Club (link).

Typically, I skim right past this sort of content—not because it lacks merit, but because there's so much of it out there, it's hard to keep up.

But I’ve got a soft spot for perceptive thinkers, and Williamson is a guy with more than a few spare brain cells. He's always been an engaging speaker, and the vids were free, so what the hell.

What was most impressive wasn’t his advice—there are educators in this business with more experience and success (we'll have an interview with a $350+ million producer/trainer for you soon).

It was more Williamson's willingness to showcase his journey and setbacks with a disarming honesty. We all have defeats, but few are open enough to let you learn from their mistakes in real-time. Williamson does that in a manner that's not contrived, with a humble sense of humour and in a way that inspires.

For homeowners who need cash but either can’t charm a lender or don't want payments, there are options. But few consider this particular option: the Home Equity Sharing Agreement (HESA).

Home Equity Partners (HEQ) is one of a handful of purveyors of HESAs in Canada. We caught up with its CEO and founder, Shael Weinreb, to pin down who they make sense for, and who should run in the other direction.

Weinreb's Inspiration

"HESAs are one of the first non-debt investment-type products for Canadians to access equity in their homes,” Weinreb explains. His inspiration for starting this business was a major bank, the one that denied his 80-year-old, retired father a 10% LTV HELOC on a $2 million home.

"My father desperately needed the money at the time," Weinreb recalls. "He was declined despite being a loyal customer at the bank for 40 years. It put a lot of strain on our family."

So Weinreb decided to launch a product his dad could have qualified for at the time, the HESA.

What's a HESA?