Mortgage Rule Changes will trigger a mini boom before March 18th deadline

Toronto readers woke up to an article in their paper saying that the new tougher mortgage rules will result in a mini-boom in home sales. How so? Well, last year when the rules changed, peope rushed out to buy revenue properties before the 20% downpayment rule came in. People rushed into homes again in BC and Ontario before the HST was enacted in their provinces in order to save money. Does this mini-boom benefit anyone? Not really, all that is happening is that we are stealing future sales and there will be a slow down after the new rules come into play.
The new rules will not have much of an effect and will actually make it harder for some people to lower their personal debt, which is the reason given for the rule change. When people refinance their homes they use the money in most cases to either pay for renovations which add to the home's value or they use the money to pay off high interest debts. With interest rates below 5%, it is easier to pay off principal and lower your debts faster than credit card debt at 24%.
The Toronto article can be found here. Time will tell as to whether these changes improve Canadians debt loads or not.