—The Mortgage Report: Saturday Edition— The Readvanceable Shuffle: Got a fixed rate above 3% in a readvanceable mortgage? Does your lender let you lock in the HELOC portion to a low-cost short-term fixed rate? If so, here’s a tip that might save you some interest. Jargon Buster: A “readvanceable mortgage” is one that has a regular amortizing mortgage linked to...
A Recovery for the Ages: Against all odds, and despite the biggest unemployment surge in a 3-month span ever, stocks have erased 2020 losses. ICYMI: Private default insurer Genworth Canada saw no need to follow CMHC and tighten its mortgage rules. Canada Guaranty, which has the lowest loss ratio in the mortgage insurance industry, made the same determination, saying, “Given...
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...
RBC Cuts Again: The nation’s biggest mortgage lender dropped six “Special Rates” today: 1yr: 3.14% to 3.04% 2yr: 2.79% to 2.69% 3yr: 2.99% to 2.89% 4yr: 3.04% to 2.94% 5yr: 3.24% to 3.09% Variable: Prime + 0.25% to Prime +0.00% Quick take: Despite the fact that prime + 0% is nothing to write home about, any improvement in variable-rate pricing...
Crude Unreality: Oil dove to its cheapest level since 2002 on Friday, closing at a staggeringly low $18.27 a barrel (WTI). Three months ago, the lowest analyst forecast for 2020 was $50! Given how important the black stuff is for Canada’s economy, its collapse should add downward pressure to bond yields—which are a leading indicator of fixed mortgage rates. Oil...
6:46 p.m. Update Prime Still Slated to Fall: Financial markets are still forecasting a 50-bps cut to the Bank of Canada’s overnight rate by April 15. Given government pressure on banks to pass through BoC cuts via prime rate, the expectation is for prime to fall to 2.45%. And while we were wrong on banks not cutting their prime rates...
motusbank and Tangerinehave been putting the screws to HELOC competitors for months now. Their respective 3.75% and 3.85% HELOC rateshave undercut almost every lender in Canada since last spring. That’sfar longer than other lenders ever expected (or hoped). The more that consumers learn about these rates, the more it becomes an issue for the major banks. Reason being,HELOCs are usually...
Big banks reign over Canada’s mortgage market, but one segment that they particularly dominate in is readvanceable mortgages. If you want a good readvanceable you have very few choices outside of the Big 6 banks.Meridian Credit Union is one of those very few. The company’s Flex-Equity Mortgage Line has all the trappings of a major bank readvanceable, with added benefits....
Banks seldom offer HELOCs for less than prime rate, unless it’s a short-term teaser rate. But suddenly we have two online banks selling HELOCs at discounts to prime. The latest is Tangerine. On Friday,Tangerine lopped 75 basis points off its HELOC rate — cutting it from prime + 0.65% (where it’s been for years) to prime – 0.10%, or 3.85%....
It turns out home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) aren’t growing as fast as previous government reports suggest. Prior regulatory filings showed HELOC balances increasingly at roughly double the pace of mortgages. Now, a new report from the Bank of Canada confirms the opposite. “The total balance of HELOCs contracted by 1% year-over-year…” in the fourth quarter of 2018, it...
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