Mortgage Rates Increase for 2nd time in February 2018
Keith Uthe
Licensed Mortgage Broker / Smith Manoeuvre Certified Professional / Real Estate Investor/ High Performance Mortgage Adviser
Mortgage Rates have increased once again. The second time in just over a week. This time the increases range from .15%-.25% depending on the lender following the .05% increase earlier this month.
The 5 year Canada Bond Yield continues to increase thus causing lenders to increase 5 year fixed rates. There are still very aggressive 5 year variable rates of prime-1.0%.
Back on December 1st the 5 year Canada Bond yield was 1.63 on Feb. 16, 2018 it closed at 2.15 and increase of .52.
On December 1st the 5 year fixed high ratio interest rate was 2.89-2.99% depending on the lender. For lenders to maintain the same spread on these rates that means these 5 year rates now need to be in the range of 3.42-3.52% which is what we are seeing now.
The previous increases had mostly impacted the high ratio lending rates, however this most recent increase has also had an increase on the conventional uninsured rates meaning the new 'Financial Certainty Test' that the government introduced in January of 2018 just took another bite out of client's borrowing capacity.
Fortunately we continue to have access to provincially regulated lenders that are still qualifying conventional uninsured mortgages at contract rate. Take advantage of this and start your application here. This will allow you to qualify for a about 11% more mortgage.
For rate updates, free credit score, property values and more download my MOPOLO app today.
Keith Uthe, Independent Mortgage Specialist