Lenders are not done sacrificing profit for market share. On Thursday, we hit yet another all-time low for 5-year fixed mortgage rates: 1.25%. That’s for default-insured mortgages only (like virtually all the lowest 5-year fixed rates). Insured or not, it’s a staggeringly low price for 5-year money. At 1.25%, this offer is just 31 basis points above the 5-year swap...
Tangerine has ratcheted up its competitiveness. For non-default insured mortgages, it is suddenly the national leader on four fixed terms: 2-year fixed at 1.64% 3-year fixed at 1.59% (lowest refi rate in the country) 4-year fixed at 1.69%, and 10-year fixed at 2.14%. These are exceptional rates for uninsured mortgages (which include refinances and purchases over $1 million), particularly if...
Only fools lock in for a decade. That’s what many thought prior to this year, and some still do. But at least now it’s more debatable. That’s because, for the first time ever, there’s a 10-year mortgage with a 1-handle. On Monday, a few mortgage brokers started advertising a 1.99% 10-year fixed, breaking Tangerine’s prior record of 2.14%. The move...
—The Mortgage Report: Dec 7— HSBC’s 0.99% variable-rate special remains the talk of the industry. Consumers have noticed, too. Online mortgage searches are up nearly 50% in the last week, according to Google Trends. Here’s more of the latest on HSBC’s headline-making offer: January 3, 2021, is officially the last day to apply, according to HSBC’s terms and conditions. It’s...
Canada’s fifth-largest bank reportedly has an unpublished 1.49% 4-year fixed special right now. That’s a new 4-year fixed record-low, and the lowest uninsured fixed rate in the country. It’s also available on default-insured mortgages. Four-year fixed rates are nowhere near as popular as 5-year rates. They’re an oft-overlooked term with only 1 in 16 Canadians choosing them, according to Mortgage...
Never in history has a Canadian bank advertised a mortgage rate with a zero to the left of the decimal point. Fortunately, there’s a first for everything. Effective December 4, 2020, HSBC Canada—who’s made a name undercutting its big bank competition—is launching the lowest rate in Canadian history: 0.99%. This is a milestone rate, akin to landmark rates like BMO’s...
—The Mortgage Report: Nov. 23— Bond yields stopped falling three months ago but that hasn’t stopped Tangerine from launching one sweet 10-year special. If you: think the economy will turn around in 2021, and think rates are near a medium-term (or longer) bottom, and want maximum protection from future rate increase, thenTangerine’s new 10-year fixed rate might just check your...
—The Mortgage Report: Sept. 30— The costs you’re expected bear to carry a new mortgage have never been higher—at least based on how lenders assess you as a mortgage applicant. Rocketing home prices and a stubbornly high “stress test rate” have pushed the basic inflation-adjusted cost to carry a home (i.e., average mortgage payment + heat + property taxes) to...
Not One and Done If you’re going to gamble on a short-term rate, you could do a lot worse than 1.29%. On a contract rate basis, that’s the lowest fixed mortgage rate Canada has ever seen. And it’s probably not done dropping yet. This latest one-year offer is available in select provinces and applies to high-ratio and insurable mortgages up...
The boom, not the slump, is the right time for austerity at the Treasury.—John Maynard Keynes (1937) Canada’s Liberal government ripped a page out of Keynes’ playbook Wednesday, promising to use “whatever fiscal firepower is needed” to rebuild the economy and recover “one million jobs.” That includes multi-billion-dollar-price-tag initiatives like extending the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy through summer 2021, making...
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