The Mortgage Report – June 12 Double-dip: As is often the case, bad news for the economy is good news for interest costs. Investor worries over a potential second wave of COVID-related shutdowns helped push 5-year Canada Mortgage Bond (CMB) yields to an all-time low on Monday. Recent Bank of Canada buying might have also helped. The reason this matters...
The Mortgage Report – June 12 Deferrals Appearing on Credit Reports: Credit bureaus are alerting lenders when you’ve requested a payment deferral. If you’ve deferred your mortgage, Equifax says you should see one or both of these statements in the comments section of your credit report: Deferred Payment Affected by Natural or Declared Disaster Mortgage deferrals aren’t supposed to hurt...
Mortgage Report – June 11 A Thursday Thumping: Fixed mortgage rates follow bond yields most of the time. Yet, despite stocks surging since March on recovery hopes, bonds have been arguably more realistic (less optimistic). Well, today stocks converged meaningfully with bonds…finally. The talking heads on TV say the Fed’s outlook and accelerating COVID cases scared the market and we’ve...
The Mortgage Report – June 10 Dot Dot Dot Plot: The U.S. Federal Reserve, which sways Canadian rates more than many realize, was more pessimistic than expected in its rate announcement today. It’s “Dot Plot” (the Fed’s official rate forecast) now projects no rate hikes for 2020, 2021 and likely 2022. It’s unlikely Canada deviates much from the Fed’s path...
A Recovery for the Ages: Against all odds, and despite the biggest unemployment surge in a 3-month span ever, stocks have erased 2020 losses. ICYMI: Private default insurer Genworth Canada saw no need to follow CMHC and tighten its mortgage rules. Canada Guaranty, which has the lowest loss ratio in the mortgage insurance industry, made the same determination, saying, “Given...
The Mortgage Report – June 8 2:35 p.m. Update CMHC on Its Own: If you’re buying with less than 20% down and can’t qualify under CMHC’s stricter insured mortgage rules, you still have options. Effective July 1, CMHC is lowering the maximum debt you can carry, raising its minimum credit score to 680 and banning certain borrowed down payments. But...
The Mortgage Report – June 5 Big Drops from HSBC: The online mortgage juggernaut keeps shaking competitors’ trees. This time with Canada’s lowest bank-advertised 5-year fixed rate ever, according to our records. It’s also the first bank to crack the 2% barrier on a 5-fixed, albeit it’s for default-insured mortgages only. HSBC’s move not only reflects historically low funding costs,...
Normally, you don’t rock the boat when you’re already taking on water, but that’s what CMHC has done. Despite a weakened housing market, the nation’s largest default insurer is making it tougher for people to get a mortgage. That is, for borrowers with higher debt loads, lower credit scores and borrowed down payments. Here’s CMHC’s official announcement. Its changes take...
Quick Summary Today’s Announcement:No change to rates Overnight rate:0.25% Prime Rate:2.45% (no change; seePrime Rate) Market Rate Forecast:No BoC hikes until 2022 BoC’s Headline Quote:“…The Canadian economy appears to have avoided the most severe scenario…” BoC on the Economy:“…The Bank expects the economy to resume growth in the third quarter.” BoC’s Full Statement:Click here Next Rate Meeting:July 15, 2020 The...
The Mortgage Report – June 2 HSBC Cuts: HSBC dropped two key variable rates: 5yr (regular): 2.25% to 2.15% (Prime – .30) 5yr (high ratio): 1.95% to 1.85% (Prime – .60) At the height of the COVID crisis, banks hiked their variable rates to prime – 0%. At the time, we wrote that variable-rate discounts will improve significantly once again....
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