Ever wonder how your mortgage rate is determined? What factors make it jump from percentage to percentage? We are getting down to the nitty gritty today and giving you the facts on what impacts mortgage rates.

What affects a Mortgage Rate?

There are 10 factors that affect a mortgage rate:

1. Location
Depending on which province your home is located in, this will have an overall effect on your mortgage rate. Generally speaking, provinces with more competitive markets will have lower rates.

2. Rate Hold
A rate hold is a guarantee on a rate for 90-120 days. If your closing dates do not fall within this timeframe, then your hold will be re-assessed. If your rate hold is re-assessed and the lender’s rates at that time of re-assessment are higher than your initial rate, then your rates will go up accordingly. We always follow up with all of our clients on a regular basis to avoid this situation whenever possible!

3. Refinancing
Movement on your mortgage of any form can affect your rate typically when you are working with your existing lender. New buyers will have lower rates than refinances, but refinances will have lower rates than mortgage transfers. Mortgage Brokers can access multiple lenders to find the most suitable product for their client’s unique needs.

4. Home Type
Lender’s assess the risk associated with your home type. Some properties are viewed as higher risk than others. If the subject property is considered higher risk, the lender may require higher rates.

5. Income Property/ Vacation Home
As previously mentioned, lenders assess the risk on your property. If you are buying an income property or a vacation home than the lender can assess at a higher risk and a higher rate may apply. This is one of the major benefits to having a mortgage broker on your team! They have access to a variety of lenders that can offer you a rate lower than others as they can compare a large variety.

6. Credit Score
We have talked a lot about credit on our blog, and there is a reason for that. Your credit score is a large determining factor for your rate. Lenders want to see that you have a history of managing your credit well and that you will be able to pay back the lender overtime. For more information on fixing your credit, check out our free e-book, Credit Medic.

7. Insured or uninsured
With the changes that the federal government made back in October 2016 this has had a significant impact on mortgage rates if your mortgage is insured or not. Read our Change of Space guide to find out the full impact of these changes.

8. Fixed/Variable Rate
The type of rate you are wanting to get will also affect your rate. Fixed rates are based on the bond market and variable rates are based on the Bank of Canada (economy).

9. Loan to Value (LVT)
The higher the Loan to Value the higher the risk. You can have someone who has a $1 million mortgage but has $2 million in equity in that property and they would be viewed as a lower risk than someone who has a $200,000 mortgage and their property is only worth $220,000. To boot with the federal changes, the person with the higher risk mortgage (insured) is likely to get a more competitive interest rate than the client with $2 million in equity.

10. Income level
The final part in this rather large equation is your income level. Although this does not necessarily impact the rate itself, it does impact your purchasing power and the amount you are able to put down on a home. Essentially indirectly impacting the rate.

Each of these factors plays a factor in the rate you will be able to get through a lender. The easiest way to get the lowest rate is to work with a dedicated mortgage professional. They will put together a fail-proof plan to get you the sharpest rate. They also have access to a variety of lenders which saves you the time and trouble of shopping for your mortgage on your own. As a final point, mortgage brokers can also assess your unique situation and find the right mortgage for you. Their goal is to see you successfully find and afford the home of your dreams and set you up for future success.

surging economy, while signaling its appetite for further tightening may be curbed by a rising Canadian dollar and sluggish inflation.

Policy makers raised their benchmark rate for a second time since July, by 25 basis points to 1 percent. At the same time, they cited risks including continued excess capacity, subdued wage and price pressures, geopolitics and the higher Canadian dollar, along with worries about the impact of rising interest rates on highly indebted households.

“Future monetary policy decisions are not predetermined and will be guided by incoming economic data and financial market developments as they inform the outlook for inflation,” the Bank of Canada said Wednesday in a statement from Ottawa.

Governor Stephen Poloz is trying to strike a balance between bringing interest rates back to more normal levels amid the strongest

growth spurt in more than a decade, and acknowledging the persistence oflow inflation and subdued wage pressures. He may also be attempting to restrain market expectations it will get too far ahead of the Federal Reserve.

Futures trading suggests investors were anticipating — before Wednesday’s rate decision — as many as three hikes from the Bank of Canada by the end of 2018, versus one more for the Federal Reserve. Only five of 26 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News expected the central bank to hike its benchmark rate. Futures trading was assigning about a 40 percent chance of an increase. Another rate increase is now almost fully priced in by December.

Market Reaction

Canada’s currency climbed as much as 1.8 percent after the decision, reaching C$1.2146 against its U.S. counterpart, the highest intraday level since June 2015, and extending the gain this year to 10 percent. Bonds yields surged, with the two-year note jumping eight basis points to 1.43 percent, the highest in more than five years.

The bank didn’t repeat language from previous statements about the current degree of stimulus being appropriate, which may suggest it will stay on its tightening path.

“What they are saying to me is they are leaving the door open to future
hikes,” said Derek Holt, head of capital markets economics at Bank of Nova
Scotia in Toronto. He changed his forecast last week to correctly predict the
rate increase.

Considerable Stimulus

The bank cited Canada’s stronger-than-expected economic performance for the hike, warranting a removal of some of the “considerable” stimulus in place. In effect, the Bank of Canada fully removed the two rate cuts from 2015, which were meant to counter the negative impact of falling commodity prices.

The Bank of Canada also cited recent better-than-expected data supports its view that growth is more “broadly-based and self-sustaining.” It also cited more “widespread strength” in business investment and exports, and “stronger-than- expected indicators of growth” globally.

Yet, there was an introduction of cautionary language in the statement, and new worries about financial market developments, that weren’t in the last rate decision and suggests the central bank isn’t quite ready to declare victory on whether the economy has totally eliminated its slack.

“There remains some excess capacity in Canada’s labor market, and wage and price pressures are still more subdued than historical relationship would suggest,” according to the statement.

The Bank of Canada said there remains “significant geopolitical risks and uncertainties” around international trade and fiscal policies that have weakened the U.S. dollar. The suggestion is the Canadian dollar gains aren’t totally reflective of growth. It was the first reference to the Canadian dollar in a rate statement since March.

The bank also said it will pay close attention to the “sensitivity” of the economy to higher interest rates given “elevated” household indebtedness, and added it will pay “particular focus” to the evolution of the economy’s potential growth rate, possibly a suggestion that the economy can run at a faster pace than the bank originally thought without triggering inflation.

— With assistance by Greg Quinn, and Erik Hertzberg

Copyright Bloomberg 2017