End of an era: mortgage-rate rise marks last of rock-bottom loans
Jared Dryer, managing broker at Dreyer Group mortgage brokers, said among his customers, about 75 per cent are opting to take the certainty of fixed-rate versus variable mortgages.
A couple of years ago, when variable-rate mortgages could be had with rates discounted from the prime rate by as much as 0.9 of a percentage point, only about 40 per cent were opting to take fixed-rate mortgages.
That includes Mike Graham, a Dreyer Group client who owns two rental properties that have variable mortgages, but opted to lock in a five-year fixed rate when he bought his own home in White Rock last summer.
“The market was changing, everybody was talking about the interest rates going up,” said Graham, a White Rock realtor. “I just thought for a principal residence, maybe I’ll just take some of the risk out and not gamble as much with that one.”
Dreyer added that borrowers who hold existing variable-rate mortgages are still in a good position, even when the prime rate starts to rise with increases in the Bank of Canada’s key rate. So he advises them to consider holding off on locking in.
