Unprecedented Times, Interest Rates Are Low
  
Because of everything that is happening in the world, interest rates have been dropping to new lows, but they are starting to increase again.
This might be a time to consider locking in a lower interest rate.
I built a calculator to compare your current mortgage and rate with a potential new mortgage and rate.
I was chatting, on Friday, with a client who had a mortgage balance of approx $525k. His penalty to break the mortgage was $4,000 and he would recover that penalty in the next 8 months.
He set up this mortgage in January 2019, so this client is ready to reduce his rate and overall mortgage costs.
You can find the comparison calculator here.
https://mymortgagebroker.com/why-should-you-refinance-your-mortgage/
Efforts on Cure for the Cov-19
Gates & company have donated $125 million towards the effort on finding a cure.
Worldwide Progress: https://www.livescience.com/can-coronavirus-be-cured.html
Travel Bans, countrywide lockdowns etc: https://www.livescience.com/topics/live/coronavirus-live-updates
Entire World's SuperComputers have been used towards finding a cure as well (reported by CNBC).
What's happened in the last couple of days
We are in unprecedented times with respect to quick financial market changes, government announcements, cancelled travel plans, and additional Covid-19 fears.
I wanted to keep you informed with some quick mortgage points from this week(end)s news (especially point 4 below):
The government of Canada announced that all current consultation regarding the mortgage stress test is “on hold”. Therefore, the expected beneficial changes which were to occur on April 6th, will not be happening. The mortgage stress test rate will remain at 5.19% (for now).
The government of Canada made an emergency rate announcement dropping the Bank of Canada rate by another .50% (making a total drop of 1% in the last 8 days). The banks have dropped their Prime rate, however some banks and lenders have already announced that they’re increasing both fixed and variable mortgage rates. This is due to liquidity and market risks.
Variable Rate Discounts are Disappearing: Similar to the last financial crisis, discounts on variable rate mortgage are headed the wrong way. Scotiabank was the first bank to announce their new variable rate mortgages will be at Prime, or higher. That’s an effective discount reduction off of Prime of about .70%. Even though Banks dropped Prime by .50% as expected, NEW variable rate mortgages now become more expensive than they were yesterday.
Spring time is the busiest time of year for lenders, let alone a spring with near record low interest rates. And now, many lenders and lawyers are telling staff to work from home due to Covid-19. To be safe, make sure to start your mortgage shopping well ahead of time, and allow 30 days minimum to close your mortgage or purchase. And even more time than that if you’re refinancing or transferring your mortgage.
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