The housing affordability crisis is impacting a range of actors and the federal government has proposed solutions to address it, but private mortgage insurers warn that reducing premiums on insured mortgages could have the unintended consequence of reducing market access to prospective buyers. “We believe that it will be imprudent to alter the mortgage insurance pricing structure when things remain so volatile. The risk of unintended consequences is too great,” said Stuart Levings, president and CEO of Sagen Mortgage Insurance Company Canada. “For example, if prices are lowered arbitrarily, mortgage insurers will be forced to reassess risk and there is a real possibility that will lead to tighter underwriting with the effect of making homebuyers who would have qualified for a mortgage today, unable to do so in the future.” Levings was testifying before the Standing Committee on Finance on April 4, along with his competitor in the private domain, …