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Important week for mortgage rates
Posted Interest rates

Important week for mortgage rates could cost or save you thousands.

Important week for mortgage rates

Mortgage rates fell by about 1% since January of this year. That rate drop has created a surge in real estate sales across Canada, with September and October seeing a greater than average number of real estate transactions.  We also saw consumers taking advantage of these low rates by refinancing their mortgages early.

The Five-Year Government of Canada bond yields have been going up and down like a yo-yo over the last three months, with a low point being 1.13% and a high of 1.58% just this past week. This uncertainty/volatility forced financial institutions to raise their interest rate by about .2% to .3%.  Having said that, interest rates are still very low. In my discussions with the major lenders, they are all telling me that it’s busier than usual for home purchases and refinance purposes. Continue reading “Important week for mortgage rates could cost or save you thousands.”

A beautiful gift wrapped box - When it comes to mortgages are you looking at the packaging or what is actually inside.
Posted Mortgage News

Are you looking at the beautiful box or what’s inside?

A beautiful gift wrapped box -

If I gave the option of choosing between two cell phones, which would you choose?   Both phones had similar specs and were identical in almost every way… except PHONE one came in a nicely gift wrapped box with a bow on it.   PHONE two came in a brown paper bag but was less expensive and also had slightly better options.

Most of us would choose PHONE two right?  Wrong!   When it comes to mortgages, most of us are focusing too much on the beautiful gift box and not paying enough attention to the contents.  They say around 47% of all mortgages go through a BANK and 39% go through a Mortgage Broker.   Broker share is up, but not enough in my opinion.

When it comes to mortgages, historically the BIG SIX BANKS have been charging higher rates than what can be had from MORTGAGE BROKERS. (see Bank of Canada study ‘competition in the Canadian mortgage market). And their inflated prepayment penalty calculations are now infamous (typical BIG SIX BANK penalties are around 4 times higher than other lenders).
Continue reading “Are you looking at the beautiful box or what’s inside?”

Why didn't the Bank of Canada Gov cut rates last week
Posted Bank News

Why didn’t the Bank of Canada Gov cut rates last week?

Why didn't the Bank of Canada Gov cut rates last week

WAS THIS A BIG MISTAKE?

Last week, Stephen Poloz, the Bank of Canada Governor, kept the Prime Rate as is during the 6th of their eight scheduled meetings for 2019.  The Current Target rate is 1.75%.  (Bank Prime rate is derived from this rate.  Today’s Bank Prime rate is 3.95%.  Over 99% of time, when the Target Rate is cut, the Banks will reduce the Bank Prime Rate by an equal amount).

This was a very calculated decision that has politics written all over it.  While the rest of the world banks have been cutting rates to combat a looming recession due to growing global trade wars and slowing global economies, our Government did nothing.  Apparently, the Canadian economy is ‘resilient’.  The next Bank of Canada meeting is set for October 30, 2019.  Oh, and there’s a Federal election on Oct 21, 2019.  Yeah, this has politics written all over it.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT MORTGAGE RATES TODAY.  Continue reading “Why didn’t the Bank of Canada Gov cut rates last week?”

Posted Bank News

Mortgage Rates have Dropped and Will Fall Further

Mortgage shopping

Rate forecasting isn’t rocket science – it’s more common sense than you think! But, it requires a clear mind to make sense of all the rubbish that’s being published these days.

I’ve been forecasting for a while now that interest rates would start to come back down this year. Currently, interest rates are down by around 0.4% and will come down further.

WHY ARE RATES FALLING?  Continue reading “Mortgage Rates have Dropped and Will Fall Further”

Posted 2 Comments on Remember when I said rates could go down, not up?! Bank News

Remember when I said rates could go down, not up?!

saving money-young woman putting a coin into a money-box-close up

If you’re a regular reader of this site, you’ll know I’ve been very skeptical and critical of the Bank of Canada (BoC) for continuing to increase interest rates. It just hasn’t made sense.

The BoC raised rates FIVE TIMES between July 2017 and October 2018. That’s a 1.25% increase. For anyone with a $300,000 mortgage, your payment increased by $189 per month. Or, to put it another way, for every $100,000 of mortgage, your payment went up by around $63 per month.

Yet, we kept hearing that the BoC wanted to raise rates further. Economists and other experts were saying we should expect more rate increases by the end of 2018! Wow!

Continue reading “Remember when I said rates could go down, not up?!”

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