Bank of Canada holds the rate steady. Your variable rate mortgage remains unchanged. Next announcement Mar 6.

Bank of Canada states things more dampened than anticipated from their last October Monetary Policy report (..sounds familiar). Currently states inflation will return to around the 2% by late 2019 (which usually signals bump in rate).

Here are their closing remarks, left to our interpretation:

“Weighing all of these factors, Governing Council continues to judge that the policy interest rate will need to rise over time into a neutral range to achieve the inflation target. The appropriate pace of rate increases will depend on how the outlook evolves, with a particular focus on developments in oil markets, the Canadian housing market, and global trade policy.”

The Bank of Canada holds the rate steady. Your variable rate mortgage remains unchanged. They state “…policy interest rate will need to rise into a neutral range to achieve the inflation target. The appropriate pace of rate increases will depend on a number of factors.” Next rate announcement scheduled Jan 9.

The Bank of Canada raises rate by 0.25%. Affects your variable rate mortgage and HELOC. Approximately +$30/m on a typical $250K mortgage, +$2/m on $10K interest only HELOC. Check your mortgage documents for details. Next announcement Dec 5.

CMHC announcement addresses self-employed borrowers who have been operating their business for less than 24 months. It states additional factors will be considered such as acquiring an established business, cash reserves, previous training, education, experience, predictable earnings. The approach to each borrower is unique, case by case and the insurer is deferring to lenders to interpret these general guidelines.  This points to good news.  As more submissions are processed, we may get more clarity or improvements.

Today, for the second time this year,  the Bank of Canada raised their rate by 0.25%.  This affects your variable rate mortgages and your secured lines of credit. The next announcement, scheduled Sept 5.

Historically, the banks matched their prime rate increase in step with the Bank of Canada increase.

We could assume after today’s announcement that most lenders’ prime rate changes to 3.70%, however,  we should be cautious with this assumption and continue to monitor what the lenders may do.  Note some lenders, including credit unions, may have their own ‘benchmark prime rate’ that may be different from the majority.  You have to check the fine print with the lender.