—The Mortgage Report: Weekend Edition— Renewal Tax: Borrowers get worse deals on mortgage renewals than on brand new mortgages. And it’s been that way for decades. Interest rates on renewals have historically been about nine basis-points (0.09%) higher than rates on new mortgages. That’s based on a survey of five-year uninsured mortgages from 19 of the largest federally regulated lenders...
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...
TD Canada Trust rate cuts: Special fixed rates drop from: 3yr: 2.99% to 2.89% 5yr (high ratio): 2.99% to 2.79% Posted rates drop from: 1yr fixed: 3.59% to 3.44% 2yr fixed: 3.74% to 3.54% 5yr variable: 2.65% to 2.35% (P – 0.25%) Every time a bank cuts 1- and 2-year posted rates, it raises the chances of customers paying bigger...
Falling Back to Earth: Fixed mortgage rates are at multi-week lows. In the last week, multiple big lenders have cut 5 to 15+ bps. The key reasons: rates are descending in the fixed-income market (where lenders fund most of their fixed-rate mortgages), and credit spreads are narrowing (meaning lenders are paying smaller risk and liquidity premiums to investors to obtain...
Optimism Returns: Markets rose across the board Monday, including 5-year rates in Canada’s bond market. Normally that would put upward pressure on funding costs, and hence fixed mortgage rates. But we’re simultaneously seeing risk/liquidity premiums (the extra lenders have to pay for mortgage capital) decline. Temporary Income: Some lenders are now considering government COVID-19 assistance as income when re-underwriting already-approved...
Some quick hits on the mortgage/rate market (we’ll update these throughout the day): 7:29 p.m. Update Prepare for “Prime Rate Variables”:Expect one or more major banks to hike “discounted” variable mortgage rates to prime (2.95%) on Tuesday. That’s right, there will be no more variable discount from those lenders (i.e., prime – 0%). This will essentially negate the Bank of...
Our Big 6 Banks chose not to announce their prime rates following Friday’s surprise Bank of Canada rate drop. Instead, people in a floating rate mortgage or HELOC must wait to learn how the BoC’s move will impact their budgets. Banks could take a few days or more than a week. This isn’t unheard of. Back in 2015, when the...
Today’s big mortgage headlines… Coronavirus Rate Sale Bond yields are getting killed as investors pile into bonds for safety. Traders fear a next coming of SARS (which authorities call the Wuhan coronavirus) could be deflationary. That’s weighing on rates as the inflation outlook is a key rate driver. Fear of the unknown has shaved 1/4 point off Canada’s 5-year bond...
Iran is still miffed about the U.S. exterminating its #1 general. It’s reportedly contemplating 13 potential strategies for inflicting a “historic nightmare” on the American infidels. Apart from ensuring its own devastation, such a move would likely drive down Canadian bond yields. Five-year yields often drop during wartime asinvestors rush for safety in government-guaranteed securities. In the 1990 Gulf War,...
The latest intel from Canada’s mortgage market… Rates Bounce Bigly Canada’s 5-year bond yieldcatapulted to 1.53% on Friday. Its 11-basis-point gain was the biggest since June 2017. That establishes at least a short-term bottom and suggests the best fixed mortgage rates probably won’t drop much more near-term. In fact, if yields close up in the 1.60’s, the lowest 5-year fixed...
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