Mortgage Bytes
Commentary
ING CEO, Peter Aceto, is surprised so many mortgage shoppers haggle with their banks. "If you are buying something in a flea market, that's one thing," he says. "Why some people can go in to a branch and negotiate 25 basis points off and why someone else can negotiate 100 basis points off – just based on their negotiation skills, on their relationship – to me, it just doesn't seem like a fair way to do business." - "This is not a time to buy, but to rent. There is absolutely no advantage to buying...when you can live in the same unit for thousands less as year as a renter, and have these wretched losers subsidize you." -- MP Garth Turner (Ha. So much for politicians being politically correct!)
Interest Rates
- "The consensus is rates are going to be back up," says Warren Jestin, chief economist at Scotiabank.
- TD predicts no Bank of Canada rate hikes until late 2009. But TD 's Craig Alexander does acknowledge fixed rates could jump 1/2% over the next few months.
- "In our view, we're probably going to see in the next couple of months more concern about inflation, more of a back-up in interest rates, although by the end of the year they're going to come back down again." -- Warren Jestin, chief economist at Scotiabank.
- "Basically the bond market is swinging wildly between a possible U. S. recession and global inflation," notes Bank of Montreal economist Doug Porter.
- The Glob & Mail writes that: "BMO's Doug Porter says the recent surge in interest rates may have gone a bit too far...Don't be in a rush to make a [fixed-rate] commitment." (Gutsy advice.)
Mortgage Stats
- Almost 6 in 10 Canadian homes have a mortgage. The percentage of Canadians with mortgages is at the highest level since 1981. Vancouver Sun 1 Vancouver Sun 2
- The delinquency rate on subprime Canadian mortgages is 1.5% says the Globe & Mail.
