Here is a quick update on the market, in a quick point form fashion which I would be happy to elaborate more on if needed! 🙂 Here is some good news (mortgage related) to brighten your day:
– RATES. It is a roller coaster to say the least. We have seen them slide lately in the last two weeks. We saw rates drop off a cliff the week after the memorable March 14/15 weekend. Then a week later as prime also fell 3 times, we saw fixed rates spike over 3% because of the amount of money banks were losing. Bond rates have stayed very low and therefore we are seeing fixed rates start to slide. Good news for purchases, renewals and refinances.
– APPROVALS?? Yes! Banks are still lending out money. Slowly but surely. Timelines are very slow with over half of the banks we work with, and the other half is just a bit behind regular turnaround times. The good news though, if not laid off from work, banks are still lending out mortgages like normal.
– DEFERRALS. If you are in need of mortgage payment assistance. Banks, lenders and credit unions are doing a good job of deferring mortgage payments and making it easy for clients. Most have created online application forms instead of waiting on hold for hours as the requests for this program are in the millions across Canada!
– HOUSE PRICES. They are holding! Not in every town in city, such as centres hit hard with oil prices. But many communities around Canada have seen their new listings fall off a cliff similar to Prime interest rates (now 2.45% and previously 3.95%), BUT their house prices are remaining strong. House prices rise and fall based on consumer demand and appraisers that give value to the home use comparables. But if there are no comparables because buyers are unable to buy due to isolation, then the market is simply on hold. House prices can’t move up or down without sales. This is good news for real estate as an investment because selling houses are also in “isolation”.
– ME. My team and I are far from business as usual, but we are serving customers as normal as we can! Lots of phone, email, zoom, and screen-share video recordings. We are busy and the team is hard at work closing mortgages for amazing clients across the country. Thank you to everyone that is trusting us with their financing during this health crisis/recession and we are honoured to serve you during this time. We hope and pray our advice is wise, rational, honest, and hopefully with a smile too.
Thanks!! Stay in touch (not physically, but communicatively haha) and stay safe!