If you are sitting on the sidelines watching these amazing fixed rates fade in and out you should probably know that they are going to be fading out again. Five year Canadian Bond Yields are up to 1.6% as of today and this will make it difficult for the major lenders to keep their rates at their current levels. Continue reading →
Many people are asking whether they should entertain the idea of switching to a 10 year fixed rate mortgage as they investigate mortgage options currently available in the market.
The decision should be based on three factors… Continue reading →
Mortgage rates in Canada are set to drop again with BMO leading the charge with their new 2.99% 5 year fixed rate. Why is this happening and what does the future hold. To hear Marcus Tzaferis talk about these new rate drops live on CBC click here.
If you have a fixed rate mortgage, you may be able to get a better interest rate or even acquire additional funding by breaking your mortgage. Unfortunately, you will have to go through your disgruntled lender and the subsequent prepayment penalty. The penalty protects lenders against losses and usually represents the profit the lender was going to make on your mortgage had you not broken it early. Continue reading →
Over the last decade house prices in Canada have doubled and the market continues to grow. The demand for property is illustrated by the fact that there are 173 sky scrapers being built in Toronto, the highest number in North America. New York, with nearly four times the population, has only 96 under construction, while Chicago has just 17.
The continued growth is due to the strength of the Canadian economy and The Bank of Canada keeping interest rates at record lows, with our five year fixed rate currently at 2.99%. The low fixed rate, combined with mortgage insurance underwritten by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), has led to financial institutions lending out record amounts to both Canadians and foreign speculators who have hoovered up property in Canada. Additionally, the competition for property is so intense it has pushed house prices up to the highest levels ever, meaning the average Canadian needs to take on even bigger loans to afford the ever increasing price of housing in Canada. Continue reading →
Last week the Bank of Canada announced that it was to leave its benchmark rate untouched, marking the eleventh consecutive occasion Mark Carney and his cohorts have opted for the policy of the passive monetarist. While this will come as music to the ears of our variable rate customers, the overall tone of the Bank’s report was one of a foreboding nature, sprinkled with caveats and doused with doubt. The bulk of concern centred on the increasing dangers of Canadian household debt, now at a startling 154% and showing no signs of abating. Continue reading →
John Benstead and the rest of the MorCan team discuss low rates on CBC international.
I derived this title from a report we wrote in December of 2008 when we had 1 office and went by the name Mortgage Marcus. With your help we have now grown to 3 offices and will be opening number 4 just before Christmas. In that December 3rd, 2008 report we advised all of our clients to consider the safety of a short term fixed rate to combat the increasing premium being priced on variable rate mortgages. It would seem that history is starting to repeat itself. Continue reading →
Two months can seem like an eternity in the fickle world of finance. Two months can see the optimistic foundations, on which future plans were based, crumble, dissolve in a sea of uncertainty and wash away the hope that lingered previously. On Thursday, the Bank of Canada announced it was to keep its overnight rate untouched once again. Talk had turned to “heightened financial uncertainty”, to contracting domestic growth levels and to US levels of growth which would be “weaker than previously anticipated”. A marked difference from the July 19th meeting, which adopted altogether more optimistic tones and foretold of a time in the near future when the monetary policy “will be withdrawn”, sentiments which were conspicuous by their absence at the latest meeting. Continue reading →
For the best part of 2011, speculation on the future of Canadian interest rates were dominated by predictions of rate hikes to come before the end of 2011. Many of the banks’ own economists were citing increasing household debt, decreasing affordability in parts of the Canadian housing market and a need to eradicate inflationary fears as contributory factors which would fuel the inevitable rise. However, the continued stagnation of the US economy, further lamented by its S&P downgrade and increasingly frequent mutterings of the, dare not say it aloud, “double dip” have represented somewhat of a game changer for all concerned. With the US Federal Reserve now signalling its intent to keep its key interest rate near zero through to the middle of 2013 and inflationary worries subsiding on home shores, the Bank of Canada (BoC) looks increasingly likely to keep interest rates fixed at current levels until at least the second quarter of 2012. Continue reading →
