Dave Larock in Interest Rate Update, Mortgages and Finances
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Last week was a quiet one for factors that affect Canadian mortgage rates.
We received the latest Canadian Consumer Price Index (CPI) data, for July, and it showed that overall inflation rose by 1.3% last month, down from 1.5% in June and still well below the Bank of Canada’s inflation target rate of 2%.
The U.S. Federal Reserve also released the minutes from its July policy meeting and while some of its members expressed a desire to raise rates sooner rather than later, most preferred to maintain the current wait-and-see approach. As of last Friday, the futures market was still betting that the Fed’s next raise won’t happen until mid-2017, so on balance, this latest release wasn’t a game changer.
With such a slow week on the news front I thought I would revisit five of my most read posts. These are worth a read if you missed them the first time around, and while some are a few years old, the topics are still relevant today:
Five-year Government of Canada bond yields rose eight basis points last week, closing at 0.68% on Friday. Five-year fixed-rate mortgages are available in the 2.39% to 2.49% range, depending on the terms and conditions that are important to you, and five-year fixed-rate pre-approvals are offered at about 2.54%.
Five-year variable-rate mortgages are available in the prime minus 0.40% to prime minus 0.50% range, which translates into rates of 2.20% to 2.30% using today’s prime rate of 2.70%.
The Bottom Line: I continue to believe that both our fixed and variable mortgage rates are likely to remain at or near today’s levels for the foreseeable future, but I will keep putting that view to the test in future posts.
David Larock is an independent mortgage planner and industry insider specializing in helping clients purchase, refinance or renew their mortgages. David's posts appear weekly on this blog, Move Smartly, and on his own blog: integratedmortgageplanners.com/blog Email Dave