News, Views and Trends!
Some years ago, I did a study on the benefits and disadvantages of online shopping. Sure, you can order food from your favourite restaurant, buy a new set of earbuds, book a hotel or flight… but can you get a mortgage online without speaking with your banker or mortgage broker?
Continue reading “What’s a Travel agent got to do with a mortgage?”
In 2009 and 2010, for the first time ever we saw mortgage rates under 2.00%. That’s right, if you were in a variable rate mortgage, you had a rate under 2.00%. We were coming off the catastrophic US sub-prime mortgage crisis. The financial US scam that cost the world trillions of dollars in lost pensions and investments. Tens of thousands of people lost everything they had. It was horrible. While we, in Canada, were largely untouched. We weren’t smarter, we were just lucky not to be exposed to the subprime mortgages to the extent the rest of the world was. As they say, Canada is five years behind the US, and in this case, we got lucky.
That said, let’s get back to mortgage rates and fast forward to 2020.
Continue reading “Navigate through these uncharted waters in 2020”
NEW HISTORICAL LOW MORTGAGE RATE MILESTONE REACHED.
Last week, we saw a 5 year fixed rate mortgage at under 2.00%. That’s right… 1.99%. If you qualified, the rate applied to purchases where the mortgage is Canada Housing and Mortgage Corporation (CMHC) insured and paid for by the client. But that rate didn’t last long and that offer is over. I know, things move fast.
But let’s get back to current rate offers. We are in uncharted waters, again. 11 years ago, we were coming out of the US sub-prime mortgage crisis… does anyone remember that? Back then, the stock markets crashed, just like this year, they recovered, just like this year, but interest rates remained low for many years. In fact, they remained at or near 3.00% for the next 11 years.
The message here is this…. there will be small moments in time when interest rates will be extra low… this is one of those times. If you have a mortgage, get a review done! Find out if it makes sense to refinance or early renew or to break your current mortgage, pay a penalty and lock into today’s low rates. Speak with an UNBIASED PROFESSIONAL. Speak with an experienced mortgage broker. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Here are some examples of people that paid a penalty and still saved between $9k and $26k.
Steve Garganis: 416-224-0114; steve@canadamortgagenews.ca
Your best interest is my only interest. I reply to all questions and I welcome your comments. Like this article? Share with a friend.
I originally posted a breakdown of how mortgage penalties are calculated by different lenders on January 4, 2011.
A recent article outlining how TD Bank charged a $30,000 mortgage penalty to a woman forced to sell her home due to the Covid-19 pandemic shows how this remains relevant today.
WE TOOK THE MYSTERY OUT OF HOW PENALTIES ARE CALCULATED
We decided this needed a more detailed explanation… but a strange thing happened when we started to answer these questions. We made a startling discovery. We caution you – the results could get your blood boiling if you’ve had to pay a penalty!
We found that the banks have shrunk or reduced the spreads between their Posted and Discounted rates on shorter-term mortgages over the past few years… and this has had a huge impact on Interest Rate Differential (IRD) penalty calculations. Continue reading “Beware of Mortgage Penalties”
As a follow-up to my previous post on Cash Flow, I wanted to dig deeper into how we can help, as well as the good and bad around some of the relief programs being offered.
First, How can we help? We are finding that many of our clients are able to save by refinancing their debts into one low payment.
Continue reading “How can we help?”
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