Five mortgage market truths, like you can do better than 2.99% – Consult with a Vancouver Mortgage Broker

Here are five things you need to know about the mortgage market as the spring home-buying season gets going: 1. That 2.99 per cent Bank of Montreal five-year mortgage isn’t quite as good as it sounds. BMO’s recent move to bring its rate below the psychologically significant 3-per-cent mark for fixed-rate five-year mortgages is being treated as […]

How lower interest rates are making variable mortgages more tempting – Ask a Vancouver Mortgage Broker

Consumers facing record housing prices are probably increasingly tempted to go with a floating rate mortgage and all the risks that come with an interest rate linked to prime. The lure is right in your face on every mortgage rate comparison site. The five-year fixed-rate mortgage has dropped as low as 3.09% with discounters and […]

BoC Decision: Pleasantville for Variable Mortgagors – Consult with a Vancouver Mortgage Broker

Today’s Bank of Canada (BoC) interest rate decision was reassuring for variable-rate borrowers. The Bank announced that Canada’s key lending rate will remain just 75 basis points above its all-time low. The Bank suggested its next move is just as likely to be a rate cut as a rate hike. It said the risk of falling inflation “has grown in importance” […]

Mortgage rates today are way below normal. Or are they?- Ask a Vancouver Mortgage Broker

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty called Canada’s low interest rates an “anomaly” last week, echoing warnings that other government officials have been making since 2009. But one of the country’s best-known economists believes today’s rates are closer to normal than many think. Benjamin Tal, deputy chief economist at CIBC, caught viewers off guard in a recent […]

How you helped Canada’s big banks weather the financial crisis- Ask a Vancouver Mortgage Broker

ROB CARRICK– The Globe and Mail The little-discussed safety net that helped the big banks through the financial crisis was their complete, masters-of-the-world dominance over the day-to-day financial affairs of almost all Canadians. When the banks need revenue and profits, they simply have their clients supply it. And so they did in 2007, as the crisis […]

Pick the right term, pay off mortgage faster – Consult with a Vancouver Mortgage Broker

Robert McLister is the editor of CanadianMortgageTrends.com and a mortgage planner at Verico IntelliMortgage, a mortgage brokerage. You can also follow him on twitter at @CdnMortgageNews The trick to making a mortgage disappear faster is to minimize your total borrowing cost. And nothing dictates total borrowing cost more than the term you chose. Picking the right term is even […]

Pick the right term, pay off mortgage faster – Ask a Vancouver Mortgage Broker

ROBERT MCLISTER– Special to The Globe and Mail The trick to making a mortgage disappear faster is to minimize your total borrowing cost. And nothing dictates total borrowing cost more than the term you chose. Picking the right term is even more important than selecting the best lender, choosing the appropriate mortgage features and finding the […]

Variable vs. Fixed Rates – The Latest – Consult with a Vancouver Mortgage Broker

By Rob McLister, Editor, CanadianMortgageTrends.com As many as 85% of newmortgagors are choosing fixed rates, says CAAMP. It makes you wonder, what is it going to take to get that number back to its historical average of ~65%? For one thing, the fixed-variablespread (i.e., difference between fixed and variable rates) needs to widen. With today’s typical 5-year fixed at 2.84% and […]

Paying off your mortgage early can cost you

Paying off your mortgage early seems like great financial planning since you’re freeing up money that can be put towards savings. But discharging a mortgage early can mean a prepayment penalty because the bank loses money. If you had a two-year term and paid the mortgage in full after 16 months, the bank is out eight months […]

Handle lines of credit with care

Give people enough line of credit and they’ll hang themselves with debt. The bad boy of borrowing products – that’s the line of credit. Recently, the federal government asked the banks to stop blithely handing out home-equity credit lines to people. In his new book The Wealthy Barber Returns, David Chilton writes that credit lines can […]

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