I know I ramble on about interest rates all the time, but last week a new rate special came out and it’s super exciting to able to offer it.
A lender called First National, one of Canada’s largest non-bank lenders has come out with a five-year fixed interest rate of 3.09%! It’s a rate available to brokers that have “status” with them, meaning that because of our volumes they allow us to be able to offer this program to our clientele.
There are a few things to note about this rate and the program with it. Firstly, rate holds and pre-approvals are not available, the rate is only offered to clients with “live deals”, meaning those that have an offer on a real estate purchase. The program is only offered on deals where mortgage insurance is available (think CMCH, Genworth, Canada Guaranty), so if you are purchasing a revenue property or have 20% plus down, you won’t be able to get this rate. The lender is looking for strong qualifying applicants that are buying a single family home for themselves. Lastly, First National is offering their full pre-payment privileges package for the product. Typically these types of specials come with all sorts of red tape, indicating that if they are going to offer you this good of a rate, then they want to ensure that their clientele will be in it as long as possible.
The next best interest rate is a five-year fixed of 3.19%, which can be held as a pre-approval for 120 days, which is still one of the best five-year fixed interest rates ever and is available at a few different banks and lenders.
With interest rates on the bottom of the floor and an economy like ours, this is looking like one of the strongest years in real estate in Central Alberta since 2007. Home values have crept up as there is migration back to Alberta and our economy is looking quite strong going forward. Even if the European prospects are looking weak, our economy will likely slide back only a bit if oil prices drop because of lower demand, but in speaking with some friends in the know in downtown Calgary, they say that the lessons learned from the 2008 debacle and the shelving of projects will have cost them more to restart then to have simply kept them going. So what I understood was that even if the price of oil drops Alberta will be spared a lot of the pain as the investment dollars aren’t being spent to earn money on today’s barrel of oil, it’s two to five to ten years in the future.
Super low mortgage interest rates are obviously a gift and it’s still amazing to me that these rates are still available (it’s been since January 2009), and I’m thankful I’m in the position that I’m in to be able to help people buy their dream homes!
Jean-Guy Turcotte is an Accredited Mortgage Professional with Dominion Lending Centres-Regional Mortgage Group and can be contacted for appointments or questions at 403-343-1125 or email to jturcotte@regionalmortgage.ca
