What is happening with rates right now?

It is amazing to see that we are at the end of January and we can already see activity leading us to believe it will be a busy spring market. Lenders are currently starting to offer special rates as low as 2.59% for insured purchases (everyone’s preferred category of mortgages). We are still seeing 5 year fixed rates lower than the 1-3 year fixed terms which is typically a signal that lenders believe that interest rates will likely be dropping in the shorter terms. Variable interest rates for insured purchases are still at amazing discounts in the range of prime-1% and while that might know feel like the best net rate of 2.95% if that recession comes in the next 5 year term you might be super excited that your mortgage will take advantage of those rate drops that will be likely to happen at that time.

Another interesting item we are keeping an eye on is that TD’s current posted rate is 5.34%. What you may not know is that the stress test qualifying rate is an average of the big banks posted rates so when we see an increase by one of them we like to pay attention to what the other ones do next. Our current stress test rate is 5.19% but this increase by TD could signal an increase by the others. When you are getting a pre-approval it is very important to remember it is based on the details of that date & should something change with the qualification rate (up or down) then your pre-approval numbers would also change.

If you have any questions about the market or what is going on with rates or what types of products might be the best fit for you please ask.... we LOVE having these types of conversations!