Four years ago this website was born on a laptop in Windsor, Ontario. We had no idea how it would do. Google listed thousands of mortgage links and there were times when we wondered if we’d ever get close to the top 10.
Millions of pageviews and thousands of reader comments later, here we are. CMT is blessed with more than 450,000 readers a year and distribution that spans hundreds of websites, including Google News and various media portals.
With this momentum comes the ability to reinvest in what’s important. So, over the next six months CMT will make major investments to deliver better news and analytics to your screen. There will be a total redesign of the site, new features and tools, helpful data reports, and more timely information in general.
We’re making this investment because mortgages are increasingly impacting people’s financial lives and retirement. Nine out of 10 first-time buyers now use the Internet to research mortgages. Yet, online mortgage information is still in its infancy.
As one illustration of this, Canadians were approved for $244 billion worth of mortgages last year. That’s more than the value of all Canadian stocks held by our entire mutual fund industry. Yet, Canadian mortgage information comprises just 1/30 the amount of Canadian stock information on Google.
We can’t do all this by ourselves, however, so CMT’s editorial ranks will be growing. On that note, we are thrilled to announce two top-notch team members…
Stephen Huebl, Managing Editor
Steve is a former editor from Canadian Economic Press (CEP) and brings an extensive professional journalism background. Steve has worked for a number of daily newspapers in Canada and will add essential insight on how the economy steers Canada’s mortgage market.
Gina Monaco, Feature Writer
Many of you will know Gina as the former Editor of Canadian Mortgage Professional (CMP) magazine. Gina has an intimate understanding of mortgage news reporting, a broad industry network, and she writes from first-hand experience in the business.
Rounding out the team are Melanie, Leslie, Elizabeth, Amanda and myself, Rob. Each of us will continue devoting ourselves to arming mortgage shoppers and industry professionals with the best data and analysis we can.
In closing, we’d be remiss if we didn’t take this opportunity to say “thank you,” to all of you, for the loyalty and support you’ve shown us as readers.
CMT’s #1 asset is the diverse community that “lives” here. Each of you make up this community, and each of you are incredibly vital to the knowledge-sharing that takes place on this site.
Our best to you always…
Melanie & Rob McLister
