Fixed versus Variable Penalties
I sat there with tears in my eyes and a lump in my stomach and felt like a complete and utter failure.
My husband and I were parents to a beautiful one year old and we had decided for me to stay home since daycare was going to cost more than 3/4 of my income. We were young and we were in debt.
The value of our house had risen significantly and we wanted to use some equity to pay off our debt and sleep better at night. Everything was fine, we were approved without problem, then the bomb was dropped on us .
.we found out that we would have to pay almost $8000 in penalties to break our mortgage! $8000!!! We didnt have that kind of money! We were doing our best but had not realized how expensive a baby on one income was (oh, how naive we were). How did this happen? Were smart people who read all of the paperwork before we signed it (so we thought).
If wed had a variable rate mortgage, our penalty and administrative fees would have been less than $1000. We chose a five year fixed rate because thats the smart thing to do, interest rates are always changing, and you dont know what the rates are going to look like next year.
Ive since found out that interest rates are not as scary as the news portrays them. The Bank of Canada meets 7 - scheduled in advance -times each year to look at the prime rate. The prime rate has increased by more than 0.25% only ONE time in the last ten years. Were Canadian! We dont like shocks! Slow and steady could be our motto! Thankfully the Bank of Canada likes to be boring, dependable, and stay the course.
#BoringIsSexyInCanada
I never want anyone to feel like I felt that day. Understanding your options is a top priority for me. I translate industry speak into regular English so that my clients understand ALL of their options and the possible outcomes of their choices. Ill ask you lots of questions to fully understand your needs and meet those needs with a loan from one of the many lenders I deal with.
Straight answers, no surprises, an expert on your side.
Mortgage Deferral Agreements and Their Impact
CMHCs Fall 2020 Residential Mortgage Industry Dashboard discusses mortgage deferral agreements and their impact.
At the end of the second quarter, credit unions, mortgage finance companies (MFCs) and mortgage investment entities (MIEs) have allowed mortgage deferral agreements for about 6%, 7% and 7% of their respective residential mortgage portfolios.
Chartered banks have allowed 16% of mortgages to go into deferral since the beginning of the pandemic. Of these, close to 2 out of 3 borrowers had resumed payments on their mortgages at the end of the third quarter of 2020. In the coming months, we could see higher delinquency rates if some borrowers are unable to resume their payments; these mortgages will have to be booked as arrears.
These deferral agreements have affected financial institutions cash flows, with reductions of:
4% in scheduled mortgage payments
3% in non-scheduled payments (accelerated monthly payments and lump-sum payments)
While remaining at low levels, mortgages in arrears (90 or more days delinquent) have increased slightly between the first and second quarters of 2020 from:
0.24% to 0.26%, on average, for chartered banks
0.23% to 0.25%, on average, for non-bank mortgage lenders
We also observe an increase in early-stage delinquencies (31 to 59 days and 60 to 89 days), which suggests that arrears could continue on an upward trend.
Source: CMHC
Bank of Canada will maintain current level of policy rate until inflation objective is achieved, continues its quantitative easing program
The Bank of Canada today maintained its target for the overnight rate at the effective lower bound of percent, with the Bank Rate at percent and the deposit rate at percent. The Bank is maintaining its extraordinary forward guidance, reinforced and supplemented by its quantitative easing (QE) program, which continues at its current pace of at least $4 billion per week.
The rebound in the global and Canadian economies has unfolded largely as the Bank had anticipated in its October Monetary Policy Report (MPR). More recently, news on the development of effective vaccines is providing reassurance that the pandemic will end and more normal activities will resume, although the pace and breadth of the global rollout of vaccinations remain uncertain. Near term, new waves of infections are expected to set back recoveries in many parts of the world. Accommodative policy and financial conditions are continuing to provide support across most regions. Stronger demand is pushing up prices for most commodities, including oil. A broad-based decline in the US exchange rate has contributed to a further appreciation of the Canadian dollar.
