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Pat Sawler
902-465-5533
HALIFAX OFFICE:
1959 Upper Water Street
Suite 1301
Halifax, NS B3J 3N2
SURREY OFFICE:
7404 King George Blvd
Suite 200
Surrey, British Columbia, V3W 1N6
Nova Scotia Brokerage 2021-3000179
Broker 2021-3000180
BOC Rate Announcement
The Bank of Canada meets today and will publish their latest policy on interest rates. Most economists are widely expecting a 75 basis points increase similar to what the Federal Reserve did in the US just recently. If this does happen it will be the largest rate increase in over 26 years. Which many believe […]
Counting the days
Big events in your life often have you counting down the days till they happen. It could be a wedding, birth of your first child, graduation or a long awaited trip. For the most part the people I am working with are counting down the days till closing on their new homes. So while you […]
Fiscal Cliff
The Bank of Canada meets next Wednesday July 13th and it’s widely expected that we will have another rate increase. However the worry is now that the increase will be too large and start to push us into a recessionary environment. Yes still have sky high inflation with the prices of gas and consumer staples […]
Reputation Risk
As a brokers we deal with a wide variety of clients, from those seeking A bank lenders, alternative lenders, private mortgages or commercial. Because of this mix, clients come to me with an expansive and diverse background. Occasionally I come across clients who have had less than stellar pasts. I know this because we Google […]
May Inflation Rate
The May inflation rate has just set a record that we have not seen since 1983, which was a rate of 7.7%. Up almost a full percentage point since last month when it was 6.8%. Yes we expected it to be above 7% but not by this much. The biggest contributor to the increase was […]
Psychological Barrier
A psychological barrier is a commonly held belief that something can’t be done until someone brave enough proves everyone wrong. Take Roger Bannister for example, nobody believed that the human body could be able to run the mile in less than 4 minutes. So on May 6th, 1954 he proved them wrong by running it […]
Two important components
There are two very important components when considering private lending to meet your borrowing needs. They are rate and fee’s. There are other important components like loan to value and location but today I want to talk about rate & fee’s. The rate for a private mortgage is typically interest only for a 1 year […]
Stress Tested
There were plenty of complaints when the OFSI increased the stress test rate from 4.79% last year to 5.25%. At the time the concern was it would remove a lot of buyers from the housing market and cool things off. Well at least this was the goal but it never happened. In hind sight it […]
New Normal?
For the first time in many years the discounted 5 year fixed rate is now just under 5%. The insured rate is 4.59% while the uninsured rate is 4.89%. This is quite the change from over a year ago when it was 5 year rate was just over 2%. This latest rate increase is due […]
Affordability
affordability noun The extent to which something is affordable, as measured by its cost relative to the amount that the purchaser is able to pay. The last few months our affordability has definitely taken a hit. Everything from gas, housing and food is up. There are recent news reports that people are eating less in order […]
BOC June Meeting
The Bank of Canada is widely expect to raise interest rates again this morning. If they come through with another 50 basis points increase, this will be the 3rd increase in a row, amounting to 125 basis points in increases this year. Yes it is true that inflation is at 30 year highs, the cost […]
Peak Rate
People are complaining about how high mortgage rates have risen in the past 6 months. While not realizing how good that we had it over the past 3 years, where fixed rates dropped as low as 1.79% for 5 years. Things have changed a lot with the increases in bond yields which drives the fixed […]
New Record
The consumer price index ( how we track inflation) hit a 31 year high for the month of April at 6.8%. Up .1% from March. The increase is a result of higher food and housing costs. The causes of this stem from the war in Ukraine and supply chain disruptions in China due to Covid. […]
Smart Advice
It’s not often when I will link to another article from someone else in my field. However I am going to do that today. Fellow mortgage broker David Larock wrote a compelling piece in move smartly about the current fixed vs variable debate. In the article he makes sound points as to why I am […]
Predictions
After reading the Bank of Canada’s press release after it’s last rate announcement on April 13th, it is quite clear that they believe that we will be in a higher inflationary zone till almost 2024. What this means is that we have definitely not see the last of the Bank of Canada rate hikes. Our […]