Shawn Stillman Quoted on Toronto Stories – Million-Dollar Mortgages in Toronto the New Norm Amid Pandemic: Report

https://torontostoreys.com/million-dollar-mortgages-toronto-lowestrates/

Shawn Stillman, principal broker at Mortgage Outlet, told LowestRates he’s now seeing larger mortgages in the GTA than he did before the pandemic. “Up until this year, mortgages of $1 million or more have been rare,” said Stillman.

In the 10 years Stillman has been a mortgage broker, he told LowestRates he’s done about 20 of them. This year, however, he’s regularly seeing mortgages in the $1- to $3-million range.

“People are still looking around and have a lot of inquiries since rates have gone down,” says Stillman. “The mortgage market is definitely fluid right now and it’s healthy. It’s not quite a buyers market, and not quite a seller’s market.”

The increase in mortgages is being attributed to more people “moving up the economic ladder” as more workers are experiencing decreased costs due to working remotely and subsequently, taking advantage of the lower mortgage rates.

What’s more, property values have also increased in the Toronto-area, meaning that people have more equity in their homes.

“The government has done a very good job of protecting property values,” says Stillman. This is due to the federal government’s CERB program which protected people’s cash flow and through the Bank of Canada’s decision to buy mortgage-backed bonds, which Stillman says drove down mortgage interest rates and kept demand for mortgages high.

“The combination of those two things was very powerful,” said Stillman.