Many newer mortgage borrowers in Canada have never seen mortgage interest rates with any rate starting at 4% or higher. For others, you might recall when mortgage interest rates hit a staggering 21% in the early 1980s. This article is directed to anyone who has a mortgage renewal coming up in the next 18 months and is worried about how much higher their replacement mortgage payments will be, plus strategies to reduce the payment and to manage the stress.

Life has certainly kept us on our toes the last couple of years. At this point, I'm sure that most of us are yearning for some of the relative normalcy of years past, however looking forward into 2023, it doesn’t seem like there will be much of a let up. Buckle up your seat belts and get ready for another interesting year. As a mortgage broker and economist by training, here is a list of 4 trends that I will be keeping a close eye on over the coming year, which should help provide some context to understand what is going on in the world of Canadian real estate. 

"Interest rates are prices, and sometimes you get what you pay for."

One of the questions that I get asked all the time, which stumps me a little bit more than you might think it should, is "what is your best mortgage rate?". Typically when people ask this question they mean what is the lowest rate that I have access to, and while it should be easy enough to answer, the truth is that this question represents a common yet fundamental misunderstanding about mortgages and interest rates.

My phone rings, chat bubble bubbles, or my email dings ... "what's your best interest rate?" asks the caller. I scratch my head, as at this point I know nothing about my caller, the property or their needs. This article's aim is to shine a light on this question from the mortgage-lending side of the fence and delve into what it takes for a mortgage professional to be able to accurately answer your question.

Lately, in the news there has been considerable discussion about rising interest rates, our economy, inflation and references to the Bank of Canada and their role in increasing rates. How it all fits together can be confusing. The short answer is, rates go up and down as our economy heats and cools. If you want more detail, read on!

Last month in my blog, I talked about new Canadian Government rules coming into effect and how they might impact the mortgage lending landscape.  Besides explaining the new mortgagequalifying stress test, I touched on CMHC’s (Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation) soon-to-be-gone role as a provider of “bulk” or “low-ratio” mortgage insurance to the mortgage lending industry, and how it provided stability and promoted competition. As of Nov 30^th, 2016 CMHC officially no longer provides that and certain other services, hence many mortgage lenders who had previously relied on these categories of mortgage insurance to manage their lending operations have been forced – over the last 30 days – to dramatically scale back their offerings.