Market Update
Great news. We are finally seeing variable rate mortgages priced below prime. We have not seen any mortgage even close to prime for the past 12 months. In September 2008 we had rates as low as prime -.60% which quickly changed to prime and then to prime + 1% by the end of the first week in October.
We hope that this downward trend in the variable rate market will continue into spring 2010. Variable rate mortgages are a great option for those borrowers who can stay variable. If you are not likely to remain floating you may be a better candidate for a fixed mortgage.
We do not feel that the Bank of Canada will have a steep increase in the prime rate. They will be closely monitoring the Canadian dollar before making any decisions to increase the prime rate. If the Canadian dollar hits par as it is forecasted to do this could slow down the economy and therefore the bank of Canada will take increases slowly.
Our best quick close 5 yr today is 3.69% which is not bad either considering the best 5 yr fixed rate a year ago was 5.39%.