Jingle mail rears its ugly head in Alberta again

One of the big bads from the1980s is starting to emergeagain in Alberta.

Jingle mail the act of walking away from an underwater mortgage by mailing your keys back to the bank is a peculiarity of the Alberta residential market and an act of desperation. However, acombination of high debt and lost jobs makeit anoption in a provincegoing through a significanteconomic reckoning.

• CBC Forum House keys sent to the bank? Your thoughts on mortgage defaults
• Home sales and prices to fall even further in 2016, Calgary Real Estate Board projects
• Calgary real estate market now has 'strong' evidence of problems:CMHC

It's enough of a concern that the federal government is watching the Alberta market closely. Jingle mail, or strategic defaults, weaken the housing market and increase loan losses amongCanada's banks.

"We're slowly starting to see it inGrande Prairieand Fort Mac," said Don Campbell, senior analyst with the Real Estate Investment Network.

"Peoplesaying that we can't make a go of it and mail the keys to the bank.In the big cities, not so much because the average sale prices haven't really dropped much, we haven't seen the pain yet. But Calgary is getting pretty tight."

Bruce Alger, an insolvency trustee at Grant Thornton in Calgary, said he is dealing with one such case and has heard of more.

"It's when you see high-end home prices drop 20 per cent below the peak," said Alger. "I think there arepeople considering walking awayand I've talked to one or two myself."

Why Alberta is different

Alberta is the only Canadian province to broadly offer non-recourse residential mortgages. Those are loans with at least a 20 per cent down payment and thusare not insured by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

People saying that we can't make a go of it and mail the keys to the bank.- Don Campbell, Real Estate Investment Network

If you walk away,you lose your home, but otherwise have no personal liability.Elsewhere in Canada, your lender can take you to court and seize other assets, such as RRSPs, vehicles, and even garnishee your wages.

Jingle mail was an enormous problem in Alberta in the 1980s, when mortgage rates were hovering around 20 per cent and people began leaving the province to find work elsewhere. It made a rough housing market even worse when banks were forced to sell off abandoned homes at a discount. It also played a role in the U.S. housing crash.

Ottawa watching situation

Alberta's housing market is also being watched closely by the federal government. In the spring and fall of 2015, the Department of Finance commissioned two reports on the state of the housing market in Alberta. CBC News obtained those reports through an access to information request.

• Calgary house prices: Nothing stays up forever
• The downturn in data: See the impact on housing, jobs and sales figures

The analysis of the housing market showed that between 2001 and 2011, there was overbuilding in Alberta, resulting in too much housing stock on the market. However, as people continued to move to Alberta from other provinces, much of the excess supply was bought up.

That movement of people into Alberta slowed by more than 50 per cent last year. There is the risk that Alberta's population could start to fall if the oil downturn persists.

Not Alberta bound

Inthe mid-eighties, around a half million people left Alberta to find work in other parts of the country and were able to walk away from their mortgages with virtually no personal consequences, not evento their credit rating.

That's the scenario that the Finance Department is worried about now.

"These non-recoursemortgagescould create incentives for some homeowners facing an income shock to pursue a strategic default and thus place further downward pressure on prices,"read one of the reports obtained by CBC News.

Bruce Alger on strategic defaults

8 years ago

Duration 1:19

Insolvency trustee Bruce Alger talks about Albertans making strategic defaults on their mortgages.

Prices need to drop 20%

So far, it is a problem in parts of Alberta where prices have dropped 20 per cent or more. Fort McMurray and the luxury housing market in Calgary have both seen prices drop that much from the highs of 2014.

JoelSemmens, a realtor in Calgary with Re/Max, said that while the average home price in Calgary is only down by a few per cent,homes worth more than $1 million have seen their valuedrop by much more.

You're going to have a big black mark on your credit bureau for the next six to seven years.- Dan Heon, Canadian Mortgage Team Alberta

"In the million-dollar plus markets, I was quite active in January," saidSemmens. "I had four higher end saleslast month,all four transactions, thevalues were off 20 per cent to get a buyer to the table, in order to get a deal to stick."

"If you took out your mortgage say the summer of 2014, just before everything started to come unglued, you would have purchased right at the peak," said Alger.

He uses the example of a home bought for $1.8 million, with 20 per cent down and a roughly $1.4-million mortgage.

"There are lots of houses in that price range in the newer, higher end suburbsand the appraisals have been coming in at less than the $1.4 million on the mortgage."

There are also many luxury homes sitting vacant,available for rent, carrying mortgages in excess of $2 million.

Goodbye credit rating

The one main difference between now and the 1980s is that nowcredit bureaushave access to mortgage information. If you make a strategic default, it will follow you.

Can't see the forum? Click here