Joe wrote:
" wrote:

As for Canada:

According to some experts, as lenders lower their standards,
Canadians increasingly face mortgage risk. In a time where household
debt is at an all-time high and the economy is considered unstable
at best, lenders are loosening their standards when they should be,
perhaps, being a little stricter.

That is so full of horse **** it's not even funny.

Our federal gov't has been changing the mortgage rules in small steps
over the past few years, the most recent change just went into effect
about a week ago. You now need to put 20% down to get a mortgage in
Canada. For the average american, that is a jaw-dropping amount.
These minimum down payments, combined with the lack of mortgage
deductability, combined with the lack of inventory over-building
means that we will not see the sort of decline in home prices in
Canada that is killing you americans.


Shows how much you care about your fellow citizens.

In the U.S., liberals wanted to bring more (everyone?) into the middle
class. How to do that? Well, the biggest defining factor of the "middle
class" is that members own their own home. So, if we can get, liberals
thought, everyone to be a home owner, then everyone would be in the middle
class! Simple, eh?

So the federal government mandated that lending institutions arrange to have
a significant portion of their portfolio in "previously underserved" people
and communities.

These institutions couldn't stay in business unless they found a way to have
upwards of 30% of their clients minorities, etc.

They found a way, unlike the barbaric and uncaring Canadians, to lift almost
everyone into the middle class.