Mortgage rates moved this week, if you squint hard enough.
The only change worth mentioning was a five basis point bump in the lowest nationally advertised five-year fixed for insured borrowers.
It’s now at 3.92 per cent, versus 4.29 per cent for uninsured borrowers.
Friday’s jobs report made fixed rates look more appetizing: unemployment slipped to 6.4 per cent, alongside a spirited three-month average job gain of 60,400.
That, and more hours worked, portend stronger GDP to come — up to four per cent according to some economists.
And that, if coupled with a rebounding core inflation rate, might (I stress might) make the Bank of Canada more prone to hike.
The wildcard, predictably, is tariffs. Should U.S. President Donald Trump’s 50 per cent tariff land on schedule August 19, Canadian yields could rise or fall, depending entirely on how Ottawa answers (i.e., retaliate or suck it up and take more U.S. abuse).
For the hedgers and the commitment-averse, 50/50 hybrid mortgages (half fixed, half variable) run about 3.86 per cent insured and 4.11 per cent uninsured.
That compares to variables in the low- to mid-threes, which people are still gobbling up, unbothered that the bond market has multiple hikes pencilled in over the next year.
Robert McLister is a mortgage strategist, interest rate analyst and editor of MortgageLogic.news. You can follow him on X at @RobMcLister.