Housing Doom Housing Bubble Blog

I’ve got a really bad feeling about this.

Canadian Tire’s Financial Services unit launched an account in three pilot markets in Ontario and Alberta that it says will help Canadians take years off their mortgages and save thousands of dollars in interest payments.

The new account, offered by subsidiary Canadian Tire Bank, lets customers combine mortgage, checking and savings accounts, plus loans and credit card balances, into one account, so they can pay down loans, or borrow when they need cash.

The Canadian housing market continues to boom, unlike the housing market in the United States which has been hit hard by credit issues emanating from the U.S. subprime mortgage sector, and the company said it was not worried about its exposure to the sector.

"Canadian Tire has very conservative and very prudent lending policies and we’re not concerned about the impact of what’s happening in the U.S. on the products we’re bringing to the market today," said Pam Dodaro, associate vice president of retail banking products at Canadian Tire Financial Services.

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We at Housing Doom were excited last week when we read the following press release [1] that sketches out the insights on off-balance-sheet SFAS 140 accounting deals being offered up by the following accounting expert.

John D. Rossi, III, CPA, associate professor of accounting at Moravian College can explain the complex situation including special accounting standards in relatively non-technical terms and point out a key element missing in the media coverage of the crisis.

Professor Rossi was kind enough to allow us to reproduce the full text of the release. Housing Doom has invited him to consider writing an article in the near future to help readers better understand this key aspect of the unfolding issues in US mortgage finance. Long time readers will recall that this topic has been the subject of frequent posts going back to the very early days of Doom. We are eagerly anticipating Professor Rossi’s further thoughts on QSPEs.

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“We are seeing only the tip of the iceberg and the worse is yet to come,” says John D. Rossi, III, CPA.

Newswise [1] — What a difference a year has made in the state of sub-prime mortgages and the financial mess the economy faces as a result. John D. Rossi, III, associate professor of accounting at Moravian College can explain the complex situation including special accounting standards in relatively non-technical terms and point out a key element missing in the media coverage of the crisis.

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