—The Mortgage Report: Sept. 18— Variable Discounts Improve Further Bankers are making more dinero on floating-rate loans. That’s motivating them to cough up some profit and sharpen their variable rate pencils. Online brokers are now effectively as low as prime – 0.93% on default-insured variables in some provinces. Uninsured customers (including those refinancing) get milked for more, as usual, but...
. If you want to pay less mortgage interest, it helps to have a cheaper home. If you want a cheaper home, it helps if there are more homes than people want to buy. Cue the Economics 101 reference. Yet, there are some who’d like us to believe that demand, not supply, is the problem. As if not having enough...
—The Mortgage Report: Sept. 15— Never before has Canada seen an uninsured 5-year fixed nationally advertised for 1.84%. But on Tuesday we saw it, courtesy of Tangerine. At 1.84%, Tangerine’s rate is now just 4 basis points above the lowest nationally advertised uninsured variable rate. As usual, you’ll find even lower default-insured and insurable 5-year fixed offers if you shop...
—The Mortgage Report: Sept. 10— CIBC has dropped the following special fixed rates: 5yr (high-ratio): 2.07% to 1.97% 5yr (uninsured): 2.24% to 2.14% 7yr: 2.71% to 2.61% It’s the first time ever that a Big 6 Canadian bank has widely and openly advertised a 5-year fixed rate under 2%, albeit it’s only on default-insured mortgages. This development is more symbolic...
Quick Rundown Today’s Announcement:No change to rates Overnight rate:0.25% Prime Rate:2.45% (also no change; seePrime Rate) Market Rate Forecast:No BoC hikes until at least 2023 BoC’s Headline Quote: “The Governing Council will hold the policy interest rate at the effective lower bound [intended to be 0.25%] until economic slack is absorbed so that the 2% inflation target is sustainably achieved.”...
—The Mortgage Report: Sept. 8— One of the most important factors determining your success with a mortgage is the rate, relative to other rates you could have chosen. Over the long run and other things equal: The higher your rate relative to other rate options, the worse your odds of success. The lower your rate relative to other rate options,...
Six hundred thousand Canadians weren’t paying their mortgages on July 31. They were getting by with the help of lenders who agreed to postpone their payments. Not long from now, lenders are going to cut off most of those payment deferrals. The housing risk this poses was the topic of my latest Globe column, which estimated that up to 61,000...
—The Mortgage Report: Sept. 2— Here’s something that baffles even experienced financial professionals. The U.S. stock market is exploding to all-time highs while bond yields trudge near record lows. It’s a question investors are asking all the time: are stocks signalling a growth recovery that will lift yields higher? The mortgage relevance is clear: if U.S. yields pop, so do...
On March 13, 2020, our banking regulator suspended its work on improving Canada’s uninsured mortgage stress test. Its decision was made in response to challenges posed by COVID-19. Prior to that, OSFI had indicated that a new and improved stress test would start as soon as April 6, 2020, pending public consultation and review. At the time, the regulator acknowledged...
Grandfathering Remains in Effect Okay, you really shouldn’t be as happy as these people if you have to do an end-around to pass the stress test, but nonetheless… If you’re switching lenders to get a better deal, the best 5-year mortgage rates are usually available only on insured or insurable mortgages. And that’s a problem if your property value has...
log in
