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Posted Mortgage Products

Stock market drop and slight recovery.

Did you know that between July 22nd and August 8th, the TSX index dropped 14%?   Did you know that since August 8th, it has recovered 9% of that loss?  What a roller coaster ride…But there’s good news here…

So how will this affect your mortgage rates?

Fixed mortgage rates are priced from the 5 year Cda govt bonds.. Bond yields also dropped like a rock.. from 2.27% to 1.35% during that same time period…  that’s a 0.92% decrease.  A visit to TD Bank’s website shows us their ‘5 year fixed rate Special offer’ is 4.19%... no drop at all.   Call a Mortgage broker and you’ll see rates of around 3.49% today.

Sure, fixed rates are very low but they should be lower….  Fixed rates are usually priced around 1.30% to 1. 70% above the 5 year bond yield…  Why haven’t you seen mortgage rates keep pace with the bond yield drop?   That’s not hard to figure out… The Banks are maximizing their profits… same old story…Banks are infamous for hiking rates quickly and but slow to move when it comes to cutting rates.

How about Variable rates?

Well, not much to report there… The Bank of Canada meets 8 times a year.   Last meeting was July 19th.  Next meeting is Sept 7th.    You can forget about any immediate rate hike.   Economists have done an about-face with their forecasts…. We were expecting a rate hike this September or October… That’s now been pushed back to 2012… and there were even some rumblings about a possible BOC rate cut (but I’m not sure that’s gonna happen).

At 3.00%, the Bank Prime rate is still very, very low and makes borrowing very attractive…   Current Variable rate mortgages are priced at between Prime less 0.65% to 0.80%…    We may not see interest rates drop, but there is no reason for them to go up for the next little while…. Enjoy the low rates.

Posted Interest rates

Bond market drops… expect fixed rates to follow.

It’s the morning after the US govt agreed on a new Debt Ceiling…… and like a scene from ‘The Hangover’, many of us are waking up to unfamiliar surroundings with a big headache and an uncertain feeling in our stomach…. let’s call it a ‘financial hangover’.   The global stock markets are down…..giving back all gains made this year…  The Chinese credit agency has downgraded the US credit rating...

The 5 year Canada govt bond yields has dropped to 1.84%...  A level only seen twice before…  first, just after the October 2008 US mortgage crisis and again late last year.

So what’s the good news??   This should mean lower fixed mortgage rates are coming… let’s hope the Banks move as fast to cut the rate as they do when they raise them.   This also means less chance of any rate hikes….

Enjoy the low rates.

Posted Mortgage News

US govt debt crisis and a slower Canadian economy

It seems US has reached a compromise on the debt ceiling and another crisis avoided.    President Obama and the Republicans have come to an agreement.   read more here.

We already knew the US was on shaky economic ground… no one really knew how a US debt default would affect Canada or the rest of the world.   It certainly wouldn’t be a good thing.

But before we can breathe a sigh of relief, Canada’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell by 0.3% in May.  The largest single month drop since May 2009.  This unexpected drop is good news for those of us with mortgages.

Interest rates are expected to remain low for this year.   And a Bank of Canada rate hike is less likely in September or even October.

Enjoy the low rates.

Posted Mortgage Rates

No surprise, Bank of Canada keeps rate the same

No real surprise here… Just about everyone expected the BOC to keep the Key Rate unchanged at today’s fifth of eight scheduled meetings.   This keeps the your Bank Prime lending rate at 3.00%…. Here’s

We can thank a slower than expected U.S. recovery and the European debt crisis…   With all this uncertainty in the global economy, it appears interest rates won’t go up until there is some positive news…

Most experts fee that no change will occur til later this year and some are even forecasting no rate hikes til next year.

The BOC did hint they do want to raise rates but are being cautious in their approach.  Here’s a report from CBC.ca.

Enjoy the low rates..

Posted 1 Comment on Good debt and Bad debt…. maybe we Canadians have more good debt? Consumer Debt

Good debt and Bad debt…. maybe we Canadians have more good debt?

I saw this recent article about Good debt and Bad debt…  Canadian Personal debt levels have now surpassed $1.5 trillion.  That’s a big number… should we be concerned?  I started to wonder how much of this is Bad debt?  Let’s take a closer look at these stats.

First, let’s define Good debt.. I agree with the article….to me, it’s debt that is used to accumulate an investment or asset….  and if it’s an investment then you may be able to deduct the interest costs from your income, making it tax-deductible…..  investments like a rental property, stocks, bonds, etc would qualify…Borrowing to invest in a rental property is good debt and you can deduct the mortgage interest and other property related costs from the rental income.

Bad debt is any expense where the interest is not tax-deductible and is used to purchase consumer goods… things like borrowing for a vacation, a 60″ TV, that new computer, or leather sofa..etc…  Hey, we all spend some money on these items, the key is to have some discipline.  Borrowing to buy a TV, computer, take a vacation, etc is generally a bad idea… save up for these purchases and then pay in cash.

Now the stats say that $1.5trillion makes up all personal debt including mortgages….  Hey, wait a minute… outstanding mortgage balances recently topped $1trillion in Canada…. If mortgages are classified as Good debt, then let’s subtract this from the total personal debt total of $1.5trillion…

We now have $500billion in potentially bad debt…  So let’s amend the household average debt to $58,000 per family of 4.   Is that really a high number?  And let’s look at our asset base… Guess what?  Our personal asset base is appreciating in value…Here’s a previous article that shows Canadians are borrowing wisely and we just taking advantage of theses record low interest rates to enhance our net worth…  And here’s a more recent article from CBC.ca stating our household credit is growing at it’s slowest pace since 2002.  Good to see some positive news put out by the media.

Remember, Good debt can help you grow your net worth… Bad debt is for personal lifestyle and usually decreases your net worth… We all have some bad debt, we just need to minimize it as best we can.