RateSupermarket.ca’s Expert Mortgage Panel Expects Moderate Increases to Fixed Mortgage Rates and Level Variable Rates Heading Into Spring

TORONTO, ONTARIO–(March 7, 2012) – With the spring real estate season on the horizon and historically low interest rates, the debate on the minds of those preparing for a mortgage is Fixed vs. Variable. Although the Fed has promised to keep their interest rates constant until 2013, in Canada  several factors can impact rate fluctuations, though in this market, likely not significantly.

Significant or not, RateSupermarket.ca‘s Mortgage Rate Outlook Panel is anticipating an increase in Fixed mortgage rates in March, albeit a moderate one. The Panel expects Variable rates to hold steady.

Fixed Mortgage Rates: Up

Since the beginning of February, we`ve seen bond yield creep up and few lenders have adjusted their rates accordingly.

This month our panel of mortgage experts foresee those increases being passed on in the form of moderately higher fixed mortgage rates.

But not to worry, it`s likely that any significant rate increases will be dampened by the prospect of a somber upcoming budget announcement with cuts expected to reach $4-8 billion annually including public servant layoffs.  The announcement will likely dampen demand for mortgage funding and further cool down the housing market.

Variable Mortgage Rates: Unchanged

The Bank of Canada meets on Thursday of this week (March 8th) for their next interest rate announcement.  Similar to the last 11 rate announcements, experts are not anticipating any change to the key overnight lending rate, and hence variable mortgage rates should remain unchanged.

Moving ahead of the U.S. and increasing our interest rates in Canada would increase the value of the Loonie, which in turn would slow exports and could send Canada into a recession.  This is a risk the Bank of Canada is not likely to take.

To read all the detailed commentary from our Panel Members, please visit:

http://www.ratesupermarket.ca/mortgage_rate_outlook_panel/

About the Mortgage Rate Outlook Panel

The Panel includes some of the country’s top mortgage experts, and helps Canadian consumers make informed decisions by offering a short-term outlook for fixed and variable mortgage rates.

This month’s panel members:

• Mark Kocaurek, Senior Vice President, Treasury & Lending (Chief Lending Officer) of ING DIRECT Canada
• Dr. Ian Lee, Director of MBA Program, Sprott School of Business, Carleton University
• Wayne Spinney, Mortgage Agent, Centum Mortgage Professionals
• Dan Eisner, MBA. AMP. President, True North Mortgage
• Elisseos Iriotakis, President, Safebridge Financial Group

About RateSupermarket.ca (www.ratesupermarket.ca)

RateSupermarket.ca is the largest impartial rate comparison service for personal finance products in Canada. Founded in May of 2008, their easy to use comparison engine provides much needed transparency to the Canadian financial market and allows visitors to quickly find the best mortgage rates. Their new Mortgage Tool App for the iPhone also allows house hunters to compare mortgage rates using their Smartphone. Over 1.5M Canadians have turned to RateSupermarket.ca to save money on their mortgage, insurance, credit cards and GICs.

This rate is worth it’s own blog post!

Currently on RateSupermarket.ca (Monday November 21, 2011) you can get a 5 year fixed mortgage rate for only 2.99%.  Yes you heard right, 2.99%!  The offer is only available to Ontario residents and comes with a 21 day rate hold. It also allows for 20% annual lump sum payments and a 20% increase on your monthly payments – two features that allow you to pay off your mortgage faster and save loads on interest.

5 year bond yields, which are closely aligned to the 5 year fixed mortgage rates, have dropped over 40 basis points since the end of October.  With fixed mortgage rates under 3%, this makes variable mortgage rates look less attractive.  Why not pay a few extra basis points for the security of knowing what your monthly mortgage payments will be for the next 5 years?

It looks like Dr. Ian Lee had the right idea when he submitted his mortgage rate outlook for November!

The interest rate announcement earlier today confirmed what many were expecting, the Bank of Canada will maintain the key overnight lending rate.  The overnight rate continues to sit at 1 per cent, the Bank Rate is 1 1/4 per cent and the deposit rate is 3/4 per cent.

This announcement mirrors the thoughts of our Mortgage Rate Outlook Panel and means that variable mortgage rates will remain unchanged.  The overnight rate is linked to the Prime Rate (currently sitting at 3 per cent), the main indicator for variable mortgage rates.

“Despite the significant challenges that weigh on the global outlook, global financial conditions remain very stimulative and investors have become noticeably less risk averse.”, says The Bank of Canada in a press release.

The Canadian economy continues to thrive.  A strong Canadian dollar is putting downward pressure on inflation, keeping it in check.  Business investment and net exports are up.

Overall, the Bank is projecting growth of 2.9 per cent in 2011 and 2.6 per cent in 2012. The economy is likely to return to capacity in the middle of 2012, two quarters earlier than initially projected in the January Monetary Policy Report.

Interest rates are expected to increase gradually throughout 2011, which would cause variable mortgage rates to rise, but the first move isn’t expected until July 2011.

RateSupermarket.ca’s panel of experts are not in agreement on the direction of fixed mortgage rates, low variable rates expected to continue

TORONTO, March 7, 2011… RateSupermarket.ca, Canada’s go-to website for comparing mortgage rates, has announced the results from their Mortgage Rate Outlook Panel for March 2011.

The short term outlook for fixed mortgage rates is unclear with the Panel expressing conflicting views, but the resulting consensus is unchanged. Homeowners can also expect low variable mortgage rates to continue in the short term, while the long term outlook is a slow and steady increase set to begin around the middle of 2011.

Fixed mortgage rates: Unchanged

Fixed mortgage rates have increased over the past few weeks and although the experts expect the upward trend to continue during 2011, it’s unclear where fixed rates are headed in the short term. The unrest in the Middle East is expected to put a short term lid on bond yields and possibly even cause yields to drop, which would normally result in slightly lower fixed mortgage rates, but given the strong Canadian dollar and moderate economic growth, the banks are more likely to stay pat then lower fixed rates again.

Variable mortgage rates: Unchanged

The recent increase in oil prices as well as escalating food prices means global inflationary pressures are rising.  However, these elevated prices are expected to slow but not derail global growth.  The current belief is that the Bank of Canada will start increasing interest rates as we head into the summer, meaning variable mortgage rates will remain steady for a few more months.

To read all the detailed commentary from our panel members, please visit:

http://www.ratesupermarket.ca/mortgage_rate_outlook_panel/

About the Mortgage Rate Outlook Panel

The panel includes some of the country’s top mortgage experts, and helps Canadian consumers make informed decisions by offering a short-term outlook for fixed and variable mortgage rates.

This month’s panel members:

-        Dan Eisner, MBA. AMP. President,  Verico True North Mortgage

-        Dr. Ian Lee, Director of MBA Program, Sprott School of Business, Carleton University

-        Elisseos Iriotakis, President, SAFEBRIDGE Financial

-        George Hugh, Vice President, Treasury, ING DIRECT

About RateSupermarket.ca (www.ratesupermarket.ca)
RateSupermarket.ca is the largest independent and impartial rate comparison service for personal finance products in Canada.  Founded in May of 2008, their easy to use comparison engine provides much needed transparency to the Canadian financial market and allows visitors to quickly find the best rates.  Over 1M Canadians have turned to RateSupermarket.ca to save money on their mortgage, insurance, credit cards and GICs.



RateSupermarket.ca’s panel of experts are calling for level interest rates in January and beyond

TORONTO, January 10, 2011… RateSupermarket.ca, Canada’s go-to website for comparing mortgage rates, has announced the results from their Mortgage Rate Outlook Panel for January 2011.

Despite Canada’s economic recovery, the experts believe our growth is hindered by the slow-moving US and Global markets, which means that interest rate increases are likely to be delayed as we wait for the rest of the world to play catch-up.

Fixed mortgage rates: Unchanged

The decreased demand for mortgages and relatively stable bond yields, leads our panel of experts to believe that fixed mortgage rates will remain unchanged for the month of January. However, this outlook is susceptible to change with additional defaults in Europe or poor results on upcoming US economic indicators.

Also, ultra low interest rates for the past few years have fueled a borrowing frenzy creating concern about mounting debt levels for Canadian consumers. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the government made a policy change to address the debt problem by adjusting the mortgage rules, likely spurring a change in fixed rates as well.

Variable mortgage rates: Unchanged

Our panel members believe the Bank of Canada will hold off on increasing interest rates during the first half of 2011. This means variable mortgage rates will also remain at low levels during this time and then gradually increase from there. As the Canadian economy continues to recover, the sluggish progress in the US and the frailty of the EU, tasks the Central Bank with maintaining a tricky balancing act.

“Governor Carney and his people will be trying to thread the needle on interest rates trying to balance the rising loonie against low interest rates that encourage further consumer indebtedness”, says Dr Ian Lee, Director of MBA Program, Sprott School of Business, Carleton University.

To read all the detailed commentary from our panel members, please visit: Mortgage Rate Outlook Panel

About the Mortgage Rate Outlook Panel

The panel includes some of the country’s top mortgage experts, and helps Canadian consumers make informed decisions by offering a short-term outlook for fixed and variable mortgage rates.

This month’s panel members:

• Dan Eisner, MBA. AMP. President, Verico True North Mortgage
• Dr. Ian Lee, Director of MBA Program, Sprott School of Business, Carleton University
• Elisseos Iriotakis, President, SAFEBRIDGE Financial
• George Hugh, Vice President, Treasury, ING DIRECT
• Rob McLister, Editor, CanadianMortgageTrends.com

About RateSupermarket.ca (www.ratesupermarket.ca)

RateSupermarket.ca is the largest independent and impartial rate comparison service for personal finance products in Canada. Founded in May of 2008, their easy to use comparison engine provides much needed transparency to the Canadian financial market and allows visitors to quickly find the best rates. Over 1M Canadians have turned to RateSupermarket.ca to save money on their mortgage, insurance, credit cards and GICs.

RateSupermarket.ca’s panel of experts are calling for low mortgage rates throughout December.

TORONTO, December 6, 2010… RateSupermarket.ca, Canada’s go-to website for comparing mortgage rates, has announced the results from their Mortgage Rate Outlook Panel for December 2010.

The experts believe Canadians will enjoy low fixed and variable mortgage rates for the month of December and into the New Year.

Fixed mortgage rates: Unchanged

Although the Canadian economy is recovering, our growth is still greatly affected by the US. As long as the recovery of our key trading partner continues to lag, we can expect stunted growth on this side of the border. Economic concerns in Europe are still prevalent, consumer spending is expected to weaken due to high debt loads, and inflation should remain flat. These indicators suggest that bond yields, despite their recent increase, are set to level off meaning fixed mortgage rates will remain unchanged.

Variable mortgage rates: Unchanged

Don’t expect the government to take the wind out of the consumer spending sails over the Christmas holidays by increasing interest rates. Until we see sustained economic recovery in the US, Canadians should expect the Prime Rate to stay where it is and only increase gradually over the next couple of years. Expectations for economic growth have also softened giving the Bank even more reason to hold off on a rate increase in December and well into 2011, meaning variable mortgage rates will remain level.

To read all the detailed commentary from our panel members, please visit: Mortgage Rate Outlook Panel

About the Mortgage Rate Outlook Panel

The panel includes some of the country’s top mortgage experts, and helps Canadian consumers make informed decisions by offering a short-term outlook for fixed and variable mortgage rates.

This month’s panel members:

• Dan Eisner, MBA. AMP. President, Verico True North Mortgage
• Dr. Ian Lee, Director of MBA Program, Sprott School of Business, Carleton University
• Elisseos Iriotakis, President, SAFEBRIDGE Financial
• George Hugh, Vice President, Treasury, ING DIRECT
• Gregory Klump, Chief Economist, Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA)

About RateSupermarket.ca (www.ratesupermarket.ca)

RateSupermarket.ca is the largest independent and impartial rate comparison service for personal finance products in Canada. Founded in May of 2008, their easy to use comparison engine provides much needed transparency to the Canadian financial market and allows visitors to quickly find the best rates. Over 1M Canadians have turned to RateSupermarket.ca to save money on their mortgage, insurance, credit cards and GIC rates.

TORONTO, February 4, 2010… RateSupermarket.ca, Canada’s rate comparison website for personal finance products such as mortgages and insurance, has announced the results of their Mortgage Rate Outlook Panel for February 2010.

The results of this month’s mortgage rate outlook tell a divided story. 43% of panel members expect fixed mortgage rates to slightly decrease this month, while the same percent believe that fixed rates will stay where they are. Variable mortgage rates are expected to remain unchanged for the month.

Fixed rates: Unchanged or slight decrease

The mortgage market has seen a strong start to 2010 as consumers scramble to secure low rates before an expected interest rate hike in the second half of the year. As lenders fight for market share fixed rates could drop a few basis points over the coming weeks – but it will be short lived, so keep your eyes peeled.

Panel members who believe fixed rates are likely to remain unchanged cite a weak US dollar and stronger than expected figures for recent economic growth; hence, the slight decrease in bond yields over the past month are unlikely to be passed on by lenders.

Variable rates: Unchanged

The majority of our panel members (80%) still believe that variable mortgage rates will remain unchanged in the short term. The Bank of Canada has been quite clear about maintaining the current overnight rate in the first half of 2010, subject to inflation. Also, interest rate changes prior to the federal budget on March 4th are extremely unlikely. Although no decrease to the interest rate is expected, a few of our industry experts believe that lenders will boost discounts on prime, resulting in lower variable rates.

To read detailed commentary from our panel members, please visit our Mortgage Rate Outlook page.

About the Mortgage Rate Outlook Panel

The panel includes some of the country’s top mortgage experts, and helps Canadian consumers make informed decisions by offering a short-term outlook for fixed and variable mortgage rates.

This month’s panel members: