Is mortgage insurance a risk to the housing market?

The decision of the CMHC to move more of the exposure from mortgage insurance to the private sector could be a risk in itself. That’s according to the author of When the Bubble Bursts: Surviving the Canadian Real Estate Crash. Speaking to BNN, Hilliard MacBeth warned that removing the buffer that the unique Canadian arrangement provides could dissuade mortgage lenders from offering such favourable offers to homebuyers. MacBeth said that if lenders were forced to cut back on the mortgages they offer because of increased risk it “could really hurt the housing market.”