The Bank of Montreal reported today that the average Canadian has about fifteen years left on their mortgage. Twelve to twenty percent of Canadians, depending on the province that they live in, have more than twenty-five years to go on their mortgages. This is all on the heels of new government regulation that are supposed to lower demand and prices on home mortgages. These new regulations will decrease the refinancing limit on houses to 80% of home equity while limiting the amount of help that the federal government can make available for insurance from the Canadian federal government to home owners. The senior economist of the Bank of Montreal estimates that the prices of homes will need to fall an average of three percent in order to neutralize the impact of amortization rule changes on mortgage payments. It is his hope, and the hope of many others in the industry, that these new rules will help th real estate market landing softly back on its feet rather than hardly and dramatically. The study goes on to say that Canadians made larger payments than they had to and some even paid lump sumps on their houses. Unfortunately, twenty four percent of those surveyed could not afford to do so.