Good news this morning! Tiff Macklem, the Governor of the Bank of Canada, announced a quarter point percentage rate cut to the benchmark rate from 4.75% down to 4.5%. This is the second consecutive meeting resulting in a rate cut announcement this year. Lenders typically follow suit, dropping their own Prime rates within a day […]
I’m sure you’ve seen the ads pop up when online, on TV or heard them on the radio? Mortgage brokers advertising a “super low rate” for a mortgage. They make it sound like they have special rates that no one else does. Is it true? Do these people actually have the best rates that no […]
The Bank of Canada announced a cut to the overnight interest rate from 5%, by 25 basis points or 0.25%, to 4.75% on June 5th, 2024. Starting in March of 2020, rates were steadily cut to a historic low of .25% which held until March of 2022 at which point rates started to increase steadily […]
Managing your down payment is not often something people think about when looking to buy a home. Of course, there are lots of things to consider when preparing to purchase a home, and the down payment is an important one. Often as mortgage professionals, we speak in general terms without getting into fine details. These […]
As of April 1st, first-time home buyers in Canada will have a new tool, the First Home Savings Account, to help them save for the down payment for a home purchase. This is a great program for prospective buyers. What is a First Home Savings Account? The First Home Savings Account, or FHSA as it […]
Despite real estate prices declining slightly from the highs of 2022, prices are still at relatively high historic levels. This, coupled with historically high rates and the associated payments, has continued to make affordability a big issue, especially for first-time home buyers. High real estate prices mean large down payments and large mortgage payments. For […]
Beware of early renewal offers! Why? If your mortgage is coming up for renewal this year there is a good chance that your current mortgage lender will contact you months ahead of your actual renewal date and offer you the “opportunity” to renew your mortgage ahead of time. If this was fall 2021 or spring […]
The 2023 Fall Federal Economic Statement was recently released in the past few weeks. With Canadians facing increasing financial pain through generationally high inflation, which has resulted in the Bank of Canada raising interest rates to 20-year highs; the federal Liberal government has been subjected to mounting political pressure for them to offer some relief. […]
On Wednesday, October 25th, the Bank of Canada made their latest scheduled rate announcement, that they were holding the overnight rate at 5%. This translates to a hold in the Prime lending rate with lenders, which is currently at 7.20% For anyone with a variable rate mortgage, line of credit or credit card date this […]
Despite earlier indications from the Bank of Canada back in January that they would be pausing further rate hikes, they just initiated their second hike since that time. The most recent 25 basis point increase on July 12th, adds to the previous 25 basis point hike, bringing the Bank of Canada overnight rate to 5%. […]