The market is betting on rates heading higher this Wednesday. That’s bad news for mortgage shoppers. Or is it? One could argue that a rate hike on July 11 makes the fixed or variable rate decision even easier. Essentially the Bank of Canada is doing mortgage shoppers a favour. Here’s why… Closer to the Finish The higher rates go, the...

One in four borrowers will renew their mortgage this year, estimates the Bank of Canada. Some of them are about to find renewing a whole lot trickier and potentially more expensive — thanks to two important rule changes: #1.  The Much-Publicized Stress Test As most of you now know, on January 1 the government (OSFI) made it harder to get...

Big news here for people wanting to switch lenders with a mortgage that was previously refinanced. Until recently, it hasn’t been possible to move your mortgage to a new lender and get ultra-low default insured rates if you had previously refinanced that mortgage. That was due to an interpretation of the insurance rules implemented by the Department of Finance in 2016....

Variable rates can present a catch-22. On the one hand, variables are almost always cheaper than most fixed mortgages. And they also let you capitalize on falling interest rates. On the other hand, when rates start climbing, so do your interest costs. That risk keeps a lot of people from even thinking about floating their mortgage rate. But it doesn’t have...

Imagine this. You’ve just found the perfect house after weeks of searching. You’ve clawed together every available dollar for the down payment. You’ve gathered up all the necessary documents. And you’ve found an amazing mortgage rate on the Spy. But wait. What’s that? Your credit score has sunk to 645?!? Those two missed payments, 85% credit utilization and recent credit...

Would you rather have the lowest mortgage rate or the lowest borrowing cost? If you picked the latter, good for you. You’re mortgage savvy, and you’re in the minority. Check out this chart from a recent Manulife survey. Its findings show that the “interest rate” dominates all other factors when consumers pick a mortgage. That’s great news for a rate comparison...

If you have a mortgage that floats with prime rate, the constant chatter about rate hikes may be unnerving. Well, now you can take a breather—because the Bank of Canada has taken a breather. The Bank left rates alone today and hinted that future rate hikes may be further off than economic forecasts suggested. If you had to sum up its announcement today in...

If Donald Trump were a regular guy with a mortgage, he’d surely be appalled by all the fake rates in the media. You just can’t take rates at face value anymore. Consider this column from our favourite personal finance author. The broker interviewed in the story (we won’t name names) quotes three variable rates: For conventional mortgages on homes of $1 million or more: ...

You’ve just made the biggest purchase of your life. After waiting months to close on your home, suddenly you’ve found yourself short $4,000. All too often, unnoticed costs catch new homebuyers by surprise. That’s despite lenders commonly requiring “proof” that you can cover your closing costs. A TD home buyers survey found that 13% of first-time buyers “overlooked some of the one-time...

For now, the days of sub-2% everyday mortgage rates are officially over. Wednesday morning’s slightly surprising 1/4-point Bank of Canada hike was the nail in that coffin. The ensuing 1/4-point bump in prime rate will push all remaining mortgage rates above the psychologically key 2% threshold. By next week, the lowest rates should jump roughly as follows: Insured variable rates:  From 1.89% to 2.14%+ Uninsured variable...