Canada's leading nationally advertised mortgage rates did nothing at all this week.
Their inaction reflects the remarkably narrow trading range we have seen in Treasury bonds over the last month. Markets are stagnating because traders are unsure whether inflation or the economic slowdown is the bigger macroeconomic threat.
For mortgage buyers, the next catalyst for rate changes could depend on Statistics Canada's latest jobs report, out Friday. Unemployment is expected to rise to 7.2 percent, but employment data is notoriously random, so who knows what we'll get.
Currently, three-year mortgages remain the most popular term for most lenders. If you look closely, you'll find them for just under four percent. That's about 15 basis points less than a five-year fixed rate and on par with today's leading variable rates.
As always, when looking for interest rates, don't trust what you see on lenders' websites. New data from rate comparison site wowa.ca shows how misleading the Big Bank's traditional rates actually are.
Surveys from Wowa.ca, for example, show that consumers are receiving—or at least claiming to be receiving—three-year fixed interest rates that are, on average, 40 basis points below the “special offer” rates that banks advertise.
For five-year fixed rates, these “real” rates are 39 basis points lower.
“By simply negotiating, people should be able to save at least 30 to 50 basis points compared to the interest rates they see on bank websites,” says Hanif Bayat, founder and CEO of Wowa.
Robert McLister is a mortgage strategist, interest rate analyst and editor of MortgageLogic.news. You can follow him on X at @RobMcLister.
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