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Realtor.ca and Pinch Tag Team to Capture Mortgage Leads

We reckon that most folks have no inkling who Pinch Financial is or what it does. As it turns out, this unassuming fintech has morphed into a powerhouse in the mortgage world. As you may have heard recently, Pinch struck a deal with Realtor.ca, the undisputed leader in Canadian real estate listings with a 50% market share. The plan is for Realtor.ca to cash in on mortgage-related revenue while Pinch orchestrates the technology to make it possible. On Friday, I penned a Financial Post column e...

We reckon that most folks have no inkling who Pinch Financial is or what it does.

As it turns out, this unassuming fintech has morphed into a powerhouse in the mortgage world.

As you may have heard recently, Pinch struck a deal with Realtor.ca, the undisputed leader in Canadian real estate listings with a 50% market share. The plan is for Realtor.ca to cash in on mortgage-related revenue while Pinch orchestrates the technology to make it possible.

On Friday, I penned a Financial Post column explaining the consumer-facing angle, but there's much more to reveal here—behind the curtains—about how this partnership changes the mortgage space. If mortgage lead generation gets your pulse racing, this is a must-read.
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How to Pick the Right Mortgage Term - Economic Chaos Edition

💡Click here for the latest Mortgage Memo. Interest rate uncertainty is nothing new, but seldom does it hit the crescendo we're seeing today. At least during the Subprime Mortgage Crisis and COVID, you knew central banks had to cut. Today, most talking heads expect lower inflation but it could go either way by year-end, dictated largely by U.S. policy. Trump & co.'s growth agenda could either prove a tailwind for Canadian inflation or a gale-force headwind that blows our GDP into an abyss, or...
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Click here for the latest Mortgage Memo.

Interest rate uncertainty is nothing new, but seldom does it hit the crescendo we're seeing today.

At least during the Subprime Mortgage Crisis and COVID, you knew central banks had to cut.

Today, most talking heads expect lower inflation but it could go either way by year-end, dictated largely by U.S. policy. Trump & co.'s growth agenda could either prove a tailwind for Canadian inflation or a gale-force headwind that blows our GDP into an abyss, or both.

Amid this week's funhouse of uncertainty, one Big 6 bank economist countered the chaos with an outlook as sharp as a bowling ball:

“Canada's economy will either improve this year or slide into a moderate recession—it all depends on which way the tariff winds blow.”

Blink twice if that clears everything up.

Economists are so mystified they aren't even trying to pretend they have answers. This bank's forecast is the personal finance version of “maybe bring an umbrella”—technically true, functionally unsatisfying, and somehow forgivable.

If there’s anything the 2025 tariff circus reinforced, it’s that even the best-paid macroeconomists with their Ivy League spreadsheets can't predict whether we'll be sipping champagne in two months or hoarding canned beans.

But this isn't the first time a crisis has tossed the outlook like a salad, and it won't be the last.

Whether it’s a pandemic, banking system fiasco, real estate bubble, oil shock, currency devaluation, sovereign debt crisis, or tactless coercion from your biggest trading partner, mortgage rates have always been subject to economic upheavals.

The conundrum is: How do you pick a mortgage term when the rate forecast has the stability of a housecat on a Roomba?

The answer is, we bet on what is knowable.

For instance:
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Trump Wages Economic War on Canada. The Mortgage Market Braces for Impact

Duty-free cross-border trade now rests in the same grave as common sense. In a fit of diplomatic dementia, Trump is slapping wildly disproportionate, self-sabotaging, bullying import taxes on Canada, its most loyal ally and the biggest buyer of its goods. "There is no justification whatsoever for these tariffs or this treatment," Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said today in a rebuke of the U.S. administration. "It defies economic logic," added former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. "Ju...

Duty-free cross-border trade now rests in the same grave as common sense. In a fit of diplomatic dementia, Trump is slapping wildly disproportionate, self-sabotaging, bullying import taxes on Canada, its most loyal ally and the biggest buyer of its goods.

"There is no justification whatsoever for these tariffs or this treatment," Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said today in a rebuke of the U.S. administration.

"It defies economic logic," added former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. "Just about all economists agree" these tariffs are a mistake, and "it takes a lot to unite the economics profession," he told CNN.

That's why so many expected, and still expect, this to be a gambit by the White House. However, we may be wrong to assume that rationality resonates with a man who treats international policy like his second divorce settlement.

While the repercussions reach well beyond real estate finance, we'll leave those discussions for others. Here, we'll unpack how this misguided trade policy could ripple through Canada's mortgage and real estate markets.
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You don't have access to this post on MortgageLogic.news at the moment, but if you upgrade your account you'll be able to see the whole thing, as well as all the other posts in the archive! Subscribing only takes a few seconds and will give you immediate access.

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And Now We Wait

💡For a rundown of what the BoC and Fed did today, see today's Mortgage Memo. At Wednesday's press conference, a reporter asked BoC Chief Tiff Macklem what he'll be doing on Saturday morning, when Trump is expected to hit us with tariffs. Rest assured, he won’t be binge-watching Looney Tunes. Nope. Instead, he'll be "watching the news," he said, pondering how inflation would react to a U.S.-instigated trade scuffle. And so far, he's not sure. The BoC admits that even its crack team of model-t...
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For a rundown of what the BoC and Fed did today, see today's Mortgage Memo.

At Wednesday's press conference, a reporter asked BoC Chief Tiff Macklem what he'll be doing on Saturday morning, when Trump is expected to hit us with tariffs. Rest assured, he won’t be binge-watching Looney Tunes.

Nope. Instead, he'll be "watching the news," he said, pondering how inflation would react to a U.S.-instigated trade scuffle. And so far, he's not sure.

The BoC admits that even its crack team of model-tweaking PhDs can't predict how inflation will pan out in a 25% tariff situation. For Joe and Jane Mortgagor, what chance do they have to get the rate outlook right: 50/50 if they guess?

All this uncertainty makes mortgage term selection like picking a favourite child—tricky, but not impossible.

You don't have access to this post on MortgageLogic.news at the moment, but if you upgrade your account you'll be able to see the whole thing, as well as all the other posts in the archive! Subscribing only takes a few seconds and will give you immediate access.

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Pine Test Drives Zown's New Cashback Realty Program

💡Following this story (further below) we preview a new offering from Cedar, a company that wants to buy your land to lessen your mortgage burden. VC-backed online mortgage provider, Pine, is piloting a new offering from Zown that boosts buyers' down payments and gives them extra cash for closing costs. The program uses a well-worn strategy to put money in the buyer's pocket, but it has a few twists. Today, we examine whether the program is just marketing razzle-dazzle or a genuine boon for ho...
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Following this story (further below) we preview a new offering from Cedar, a company that wants to buy your land to lessen your mortgage burden.

VC-backed online mortgage provider, Pine, is piloting a new offering from Zown that boosts buyers' down payments and gives them extra cash for closing costs.

The program uses a well-worn strategy to put money in the buyer's pocket, but it has a few twists. Today, we examine whether the program is just marketing razzle-dazzle or a genuine boon for homebuyers.

You don't have access to this post on MortgageLogic.news at the moment, but if you upgrade your account you'll be able to see the whole thing, as well as all the other posts in the archive! Subscribing only takes a few seconds and will give you immediate access.

This post is for MLN Pro subscribers only

Subscribe now
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