On my last blog entry, I got a comment about the appropriateness of mortgage for students. Some good points were raised by questioning the option of giving students mortgages and, moreover, the debt risk someone may be putting him or herself in. That’s actually why I wanted to speak to someone about this in the first place.

I got back to Bernice with the concerns and she stressed the importance of sitting down with a mortgage specialist. She says that if students want to get themselves a mortgage, it’s something the bank is there to talk with about. The specialist’s advice may, in fact, be that this isn’t the right time to buy a home, but a plan can be put in place to get you into the right position. “Every circumstance and situation is different- we simply want to highlight options,” she told me. She stressed that “purchasing with 100% financing” isn’t necessarily the best option, but nevertheless one that is available today.

When I wrote about co-investment opportunities, I was drawing on my own personal experience. I suggested that at one time I might have wanted to look into getting a mortgage with my roommates. When I asked Bernice that, I was surprised that it was an option the bank was willing to look at and that it was called “co-investment”. There are many different co-investment possibilities and one, of course, is the parent-child (student) possibility. This is a possibility that a student may want to pursue.

When I followed up with Bernice, she reminded me that there are many different levels of “students” in the market. Some may have part-time or even full-time jobs that could support a mortgage. “Depending on their personal circumstances,” she said, “their level of qualification and “readiness” for homeownership could be very different.”