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?

Bank of Canada rate bump not necessarily a harbinger of hikes to come

Vancouver Sun- On the same day the Bank of Canada bumped its key lending rate up, a major chartered bank edged a key mortgage rate down, moves that reflected the continuing uncertainty in world financial markets.

The Bank of Canada on Tuesday became the first G7 central bank to raise interest rates since July 2008, hiking its key overnight lending rate one-quarter of a percentage point to 0.5 per cent in a long-anticipated move aimed at keeping Canada’s recovering economy from overheating.

However, with uncertainty over the global economy mounting due to turmoil in the European Union, the pressure for future short-term rate increases might be easing.

The turmoil has caused interest rates for longer-term bonds to fall, allowing the Bank of Montreal to trim its five-year discount mortgage rate one-tenth of a percentage point to 4.25 per cent…

Bank of Canada rate bump not necessarily a harbinger of hikes to come

EU crisis a boon to Canadian homeowners

The Globe and Mail- The financial instability in Europe is giving Canadian homeowners a slight reprieve from rising mortgage rates.

Banks began a series of swift mortgage rate hikes in early April, and both bankers and economists said that rates would continue to rise.

But in the last week a number of banks have cut their rates by between 10 and 15 basis points, effectively undoing the last in a series of three successive rate hikes…

EU crisis a boon to Canadian homeowners – The Globe and Mail

Rising mortgage rates, rising trouble

The Globe and Mail- Almost half a million more mortgage holders would be in trouble if their rates hit 5.25 per cent, a national survey showed Monday.

Canadian mortgage rates are already climbing ahead of an expected interest-rate hike next month. In light of a rising rate environment, a biannual report by the Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals simulated the impact of mortgage-rate increases up to 5.25 per cent. The current average mortgage rate is 4.02 per cent among households that locked-in fixed rates during the past year.

It found that about 375,000 mortgage holders “are already challenged” by their current payments, and another 475,000 might be if their rate rises to 5.25 per cent…

Rising mortgage rates, rising trouble – The Globe and Mail

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