Canada fears contagion after mortgage lender buckles

Toronto

AS Home Capital Group Inc spiralled downward last week, a group of Canadian real estate brokers relaxing in Mexico brooded over whether the mortgage lender's woes would seep into the housing market and trigger the kind of crisis the country averted in 2008.

"Home Capital was on everybody's lips," Dominion Lending Centres' Jason Georgopoulos said about the industry retreat in Los Cabos, Mexico. In between margaritas and rounds of golf, he saw Home Capital's stock plunge and its debt rating cut to junk from investment grade.