For the first time since the stress-test rate last increased (in May 2018), a major bank has cut its 5-year posted rate below 5.34%. RBC confirmed the move Saturday morning, lowering its trend-setting posted 5-year fixed by 15 basis points to 5.19%. Speculation has been running rampant in the industry about the government persuading banks to keep their 5-year posted...
The latest intel from Canada’s mortgage market… Tanker Attack TorpedoesRates There weresparksthis week in the powder keg that is the Middle East. Sea terrorismtriggered fears of war and/or oil supply disruption. That led investors to pile back into “safe” Canadian government bonds. As is usual when the market goes into “risk-off” mode, bond prices rose and yields sank (the two...
Quick takes from Mortgageland… Most 5-year Fixed Rates Now in the High 2’s If you’re out there mortgage shopping, you can thank Trump’s tariff madnessfor saving you some basis points. Trade uncertainty is pounding bond yields and fixed rates are slowly following (key word being “slowly”). Multiple big banks are now quoting sub-3% rates (non-publicly) for well-qualified borrowers. If yields...
The details on the government’s much-hyped First-Time Home Buyer Incentive (FTHBI) continue to trickle out. The latest clues on its operation come from Evan Solomon’s interview with CMHC CEO Evan Siddall. In that interview, Siddall comments on some lingering FTHBI question marks, namely: The Maximum Home Price The maximum home price under the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive ranges from $505,000...
The latest happenings from the rate world: HSBC Won’t Let Up Despite moving to an everyday-low-rate online model a few years ago, competitors keep thinking (or maybe hoping) that HSBC is just a flash in the pan. Then it does what it did today. The bank hammered rates lower this morning, to: 2.74% for insured 5-year fixed mortgages (down 15...
Quick news nuggets from Canada’s mortgage rate market: Not only has the yield curve inverted, but in some cases the mortgage rate curve has inverted. Among uninsured mortgages available in multiple provinces, for example, thebest 5-year fixed rateis now belowthebest variable rate. There’s still tremendous value in insured variable rates—now effectively as low as 2.54% in some provinces. Markets are...
Hopefully people don’t believe everything they read, especially when they read stories like this: “Instant mortgages are coming soon – what could go wrong?“ We’ve been meaning to comment on this piece of imaginative writing for a few months now, but real news got in the way. The article, originally published in October—from a respected journalist no less—is heavy on...
Comparing mortgage rates is more worthwhile today than it was two years ago, for multiple reasons. For one thing, Canada’s average mortgage balance is now up to$263,657, according to TransUnion. This number has been rising for years, and it’s risen another 4.23% in the 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2018 (the latest data available). The bigger your mortgage, the mortgage...
It’s sort of counterintuitive that making banks safer often costs you more as a borrower, but that’s what may happen in this case. Canada’s banking regulator (OSFI) has raised the minimum capital that banks must maintain…again. And there’s a good chance banks could take it out on mortgage borrowers, eventually. Here’s What Happened Back in June, OSFI created the “Domestic...
Mortgage activity fell more than many people thought last year. New data from CMHCshows a 9% drop in the number of consumers getting new mortgages in 2017, among the metro areas it surveyed. Stricter mortgage rules, higher mortgage rates and higher home prices were some of the likely causes. Of particular interest was the drop in refinances. The number of...
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