As predicted, the Bank of Canada increased interest rates by another three quarter percent this morning.
Hopefully you were able to get an early mortgage renewal as we talked about two weeks ago. Or at least passed on the heads-up…
If you’re not anywhere near renewal – many of us are envious. Even more so if you don’t have a mortgage in the first place!
On a $400,000 mortgage, for example, today’s change will increase a mortgage payment by $250 a month (or $62.50 for every 100,000 of mortgage balance). Between the rate increases and the Trudeau stress-test there aren’t going to be many first-time buyers that will have any chance of qualifying for their first home.
How sad that the Federal Government seems to have a single-minded focus on stopping home sales when it’s such a massive part of our economic activity from legal fees to home improvement stores, builders to realtors. Let’s hope that, at some point, they realize more supply would make a massive difference…but that’s not likely…