Government again moves to slow market

It may be that other shoe brokers have been waiting to drop, with CMHC announcing it will now limit each lender enrolled in its mortgage-backed securities program to $350 million in guarantees for August.

It may be that other shoe brokers have been waiting to drop, with CMHC announcing it will now limit each lender enrolled in its mortgage-backed securities program to $350 million in guarantees for August.

The Crown corporation says it will impose the limit for each lender on new guarantees in an effort to stay below its $85-billion ceiling. Brokers, among other channel players, are concerned the move will see lenders increase their mortgage rates to compensate for any increase in their own securitization costs or an associated drop in business.

Still, monolines able to stave off that kind of price hike could benefit from the CMHC decision, say analysts.

But brokers are already adopting a wait-and-see approach before deciding whether this latest move will further slow the market, which has only now started to rebound.