Mortgage Finance Companies (MFCs) pitch themselves as a better alternative to the banks. But that’s definitely not true in all cases. Here’s one example. At the moment, certain MFCs are refusing to offer blends and increases and/or refinances to existing...

It’s easy to stoke fear of a crisis when there’s already a purported crisis. Towering housing valuations in Canada’s internationally renowned cities have prompted bubble-talk for years. Housing bears are constantly speculating on what it’s going to take to “pop” it. Well,...

When it comes to the best variable rates, the trend has become our friend. Floating rates continue to creep lower after spiking at the end of 2015. Much of the improvement is thanks to shrinking credit spreads. In other words, lenders have been paying...

Not So Fast… A slew of lenders have hoisted fixed mortgage rates in the last few weeks. Their motivation was the recent spike in government bond yields, which hit multi-month highs and (temporarily) boosted banks’ funding costs. Meanwhile, numerous lenders simply absorbed...

No rate-cut drama today. The Bank of Canada left its key lending rate at 0.50% this morning, a move expected by about half the market. Mortgage Impact: Banks weren’t about to cut prime by more than 5-15 basis points anyway (a basis point...

Variable mortgage rates are under some pressure. A half-dozen lenders, including some major banks and large non-bank lenders, have shrunk their variable-rate discounts by 0.10 to 0.15 percentage points in the last few days. Their going rate is now prime – 0.50%....

Got a hot rate tip? The Spy buys rate Intel. The Top 2 rate tips of the month earn a crisp C-note! Here’s the fine print. The rate must be: A rate that is at least 5 basis points lower than the...

Credit unions are slowly and stealthily becoming a force in mortgage lending. We may not see any one credit union become consistently dominant, but CUs are certainly working together to promote their value. At any given time, you can expect...

Do you want to monitor specific types of mortgage rates? For example: Rates on 5-year fixed terms with 120-day rate holds? 10-year fixed rates from brokers in British Columbia? Variable rates, but only from banks and credit unions? RateSpy makes...

This week the Bank of Canada’s “benchmark rate,” a measure of 5-year posted mortgage rates, dropped to an all-time low of 4.99% (from 5.24%). The benchmark rate is an important number used by lenders to qualify you for a mortgage (i.e., calculate how...