Property Owner

A recent poll conducted by Harris/Decima has shown that 50 per cent of all Canadians would choose a fixed rate mortgage if they had to decide today, this is up from 39 per cent in 2011; whereas only 32 per cent would choose a variable rate mortgage, no change from last year.  The other 18 per cent aren’t sure which product would be right for them which is much less than the 30 per cent from last year.  Likely the shift in preferences from variable to fixed is due to the fact that the majority (86 per cent) of Canadians believe that mortgage rates will either stay the same or increase within the next year.

This poll suggests that more and more Canadians are looking to lock in at the current low fixed interest rates in order to pay off their debt sooner and protect themselves from rising interest rates.  As a rule, fixed rate mortgages are normally the product of choice amongst first time home buyers as many are working to establish themselves financially and are attracted to the fact that their rate and payments will not change over the term of their mortgage.

Scotia Bank somewhat slipped under the radar when they withdrew their 4 year promo fixed rates last week and returned to the 4.39 per cent level.  This is a little shocking, seeing as it is a huge 140 basis point jump up from the short lived 2.99 per cent rate.

RBC and TD both published a press release earlier this week announcing a number of changes to their pricing strategy, all effective yesterday – Thursday March 29^th:

• Both increased their posted 5 year closed fixed rate by 20 basis points to sit at 5.44 per cent
• Both also increased their 5 year closed variable rate by 10 bps to sit at Prime + 0.20 per cent (effectively 3.20 per cent)
• And both have ended the 4 year special closed fixed rate of 2.99 per cent and returned it to 3.49 per cent (only a 50 bps increase vs. Scotia’

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Are you already familiar with the entire process of home buying in Australia? If answered no, you should be aware that one of the general principles of home buying is to pledge your home as security to the lender. If the homeowner fails to make payments on the loan, the bank or the financial institution can simply repossess the house and recuperate the money. Though the name of the buyer will be mentioned in all the legal documents of the mortgage loan, you still have to pay interest rates on the loan amount.

According to recent reports, foreclosure isn’t a huge problem in Australia but if you go through the recent financial updates worldwide, you can see that the US and the UK is facing a big problem in the housing industry. T Read full article…

Mortgages Rates, continued pushing into their highest levels of the year today after yet another volatile session for bond markets.  Most lenders initial rate sheets were slightly improved from yesterday earlier this morning, but market movements during the course of the day prompted widespread repricing.  By the end of the day, it’s questionable to continue thinking about Best-Execution in terms of 4.0-4.125% and more appropriate to shift that range from 4.125% to 4.25%.  That said, the combination of rate and fee at 4.0% is still competitive at many lenders, but it’s doubtful that many could offer 4.0% without some lender-related closing costs.

(about Best-Execution calculations).

(about Wednesday’s Big Changes in Rates).

This is now the largest magnitude move higher in mortgage rates since October 2011.  But t

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Hard hit by a slump in the housing market, both builders and brokers are closely following housing finance data to forecast where their industry is headed for 2012.  It may be too soon to celebrate a recent surge in housing finance, but property analyst SQM Research has indicated the result look to favour aggressive property investors.

SQM Research managing director Louis Christopher said the recent rise in housing finance numbers for December 2011 augurs well for the housing market. Christopher said the data showed a clear, rising trend of housing finance approvals and could signal the start of a recovery.

It appears this trend started around June 2011 from what was very, very low levels of activity.

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