Spotlight On Mortgages: December 6, 2013 + MORE Dec 8th

Rate cuts have been the talk of the town – or rather, the world – as a number of global economies released their latest rate announcements this week.
While such action didn’t actually happen – the Bank of Canada kept its overnight lending rate at one per cent, where it has remained since September 2010, the European Central Bank at 0.25 per cent, and the Bank of England  at 0.5  - the recent rounds of monetary policy read “what if” between the lines.
Looking For An Economic Kickstarter
Last month, the ECB halved their central interest rate to the current 0.25 per cent. At the time, ECB President Mario Draghi said the cut reflected pessimism over growth progress in the EU. Like Canada, the benchmark for healthy inflation in Europe is two per cent – and like here, levels have been woefully subpar; the new ECB forecast is 1.1 per cent for growth in 2014, and 1.3 per cent.
While this hasn’t led Europe to cut their rate for the second time in a row, Draghi admitted the option had been discussed, and that a negative rate could be put into play in the future to further stoke bank lending and consumer spending…

Shares of Canada’s big banks have been soaring since the start of the summer, pushed higher by steady growth in residential mortgage lending. So much so that the eight-company S&P/TSX Canadian Banks Composite Index hit a record high recently, more than doubling the gain of the broad benchmark index over the same period.
But investors hoping that the good times might continue got a bit of a shock this week as shares in the sector faltered, signalling a warning that the banking business may be heading into a period where Canadian bank profits growth will start to slow.
Investors Decide To Take Profits
Despite their impressive run, S&P Capital IQ equity analyst Erik Oja notes that Canadian banks face several country-specific and global challenges including low interest rates, deleveraging Canadian borrowers, frothy real-estate prices, and a still listless U.S. recovery.
What’s more, despite the fact that the credit ratings of Canada’s banks are among the highest in the world, Fitch Ratings struck a cautious note in its most recent report on Canadian lenders…

Dominion Lending Centres Canada 5 year Closed mortgage rate was changed on November 19, 2013

Dominion Lending Centres Canada 5 year Variable Closed mortgage rate was changed on November 15, 2013

CIBC Mortgages 7 year Variable Opened mortgage rate was changed on November 26, 2013