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With low interest rates, is it time to reconsider your mortgage?

Vancouver Sun- With mortgage rates low and more likely to go up than down, some borrowers may want to think long and hard about whether they want a long and hard — fixed, that is — mortgage rate.

The first question is whether to go fixed or variable when borrowing to buy a home. Statistics show that 88 per cent of the time, a variable mortgage is cheaper than a fixed-rate mortgage, said Feisal Panjwani, senior mortgage consultant with Invis-Feisal & Associates Mortgage Consulting in Cloverdale. But the problem with a variable rate is that it is just that: It changes over the life of the mortgage…

With low interest rates, is it time to reconsider your mortgage?

Weights & measures

Financial Post-The days of exceptionally low mortgage rates are coming to an end as a number of banks announced higher fixed rates this week.

However, the higher rates may not immediately slow the Toronto housing market.

"I think that higher rates will be somewhat balanced by the fact that, in Toronto, people might rush into the market in order to beat the introduction of the harmonized sales tax [July 1]," says Marc Pinsonneault, senior economist, economy and strategy group, National Bank Financial Group.

Certainly, rising prices had not slowed the rush of buyers to the market in the early part of the year. This week’s Teranet-National Bank National House Price Index, which traces resale numbers, showed a 0.7% increase in house prices in Toronto in January, compared with the previous month. The year-over-year rise was 9.4%…

Weights & measures

Housing starts hit 2009 high

Globe and Mail-  Housing starts hit their highest level this year in November, more proof that Canada’s real estate market has clawed out of recession…

Housing starts hit 2009 high – The Globe and Mail

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