depends on your IRD and penalty that comes from it.

It'll be different for every person. You have to do the math using your penalty, your rates, incentives offered, etc.

-Mark

My fee is 12k. I’m working on renewing mine. With my rate of 3.04 and going to 1.74 I come out a little ahead.

Current plan is to pay of 20% of the mortgage before year end, then beg, borrow steal another 20% early January to knock that fee way down. Refinance and get all that money back. Works for me because the banks gave me an absolutely stupid line of credit over the summer which I keep on hand.

All this hassle and I come out way ahead. Worth it? That’s up to you. Lol.

I went with a broker off that thread as well. They were able to beat the rates I was getting from brokers here. Doing it all virtually was totally fine and I would do it again. In Sept, I was offered 5 years at prime - 0.85 which is what I took.

1.64-1.69% five year fixed or 1.65% five year variable. The fixed comes with $1000 cash back and variable comes with $3000 cash back

What do you guys think?

I'd go for the variable + $3k cash back.

Do you get the option of locking in the variable rate if the rates start going up?

How big of a mortgage will you be borrowing?

How do you go by contacting the private lenders on RFD?

Are these rates being posted here (1.6 - 1.7% 5 yr fixed) based on 20% down and no insurance?

Press the message button?

Haven't been discussed yet, got those numbers from the RFD forum.
Pm me if you want know more

It's ok, it's just something for you to consider.

But basically, look at your risk level and how much you plan on borrowing.

For example, the difference of $2000 cash back from Fixed and variable.
Over 25 years, that is very little but people see that first and fixate on it so it's really moot.

The difference is over the next 5 years, can you lock in the variable rate to a locked rate if the rates start going up after 2022/2023.
At what interest rate would it become unaffordable for you.

Currently, I don't expect to see interest rates climb until the pandemic is over but there isn't enough inflation that warrants super high interest rates.

Lastly, if you are borrowing a high amount, then the change in interest rates make a bigger difference. If the amount you borrow is low, then even a variable rate jumping to 2.0% isn't going to make you broke.

Hope this makes sense.

Friend just forwarded me a CIBC Black Friday special mortgage rate (lol)

4 years fixed @ 1.49% (Nov 27 - Dec 24)

I'll see if I can get more info and report back.

[edit] https://forums.redflagdeals.com/cibc...-1-49-2423776/

Deal is on until Xmas eve, so if you're looking to lock in the rate then you can ask your mortgage broker to have it approved by Dec 24th to give you a little bit of extra buffer time.

TD was offering me 4 years fixed @1.64% back in september.

whats everyone take on 4years vs 5 year fixed term?

Heard rates dropped to 1.49% today.


In addition, does anyone have any good insight on the older Joyce condo units along Vanness Ave and Crowley Dr? Looking at some units in the upcoming weeks.

Which buildings? I lived in that area for 4 years and looked at a bunch before buying.

Don't buy the ones right in front of the sky train tracks, sound travels upwards. Or anything not directly facing is ok. The ones closer to the tracks and station were older and more ghetto

O and you get complementary vis daily on Kingsway too :troll: :fuckthatshit: got out of that hood

When we were looking 3 years ago, our real estate agent didn't even want to take us into the Joyce area haha.

I’ve been into almost all those buildings and I’d say the quality, type of people living in them, and the layouts are all over the map.

Parking is obviously a nightmare for visitors etc. However you have quite a bit in terms of restaurants and amenities within a short walk. Also decent parks and outdoor spaces.

It seems like almost all those buildings have the typical “mainlander” warnings however. Ie. signs posts all over the place about dogs pissing in elevators and common areas, people not sorting recycling etc. So if you’re looking at units I recommend going to common areas, parkades, storage areas, etc. And see what the state of these are and if there are warnings posted everywhere about people’s behaviour

B.C. strata insurers to end 'best terms pricing' scheme by Jan. 1

So for those people who got royally screwed over from insurance rates jumping up 200%+ in some cases and resulting in their monthly fees doubling does that mean next year they'll see a major drop to what it was prior or possibly even lower since the best term pricing has been going on for X many years?

WTF?! Is that Best Terms Pricing basically a scam then? The broker charges the customer (the strata corp) the price of the highest bid, and then goes off to purchase something else!

Currently debating between 1.49% fixed over 4 years or 1.69% fixed over 5 years- both from CIBC w/ cashback (refinancing mortgage and transferring from HSBC to CIBC).

I calculated the break-even point for year 4 - 5 (excluding cash back, penalty, etc. so strictly mortgage) at 2.49%. But the mortgage rate at year 4 (renewal rate if I go w/ 4 year mortgage) could be vastly different (lower) than my mortgage rate at year 5.

Thoughts?

i lived at the centro at 3438 vanness ave up until last year.
its a super convenient spot because it's close to the skytrain and it's right on a bike path, and it's near enough to kingsway and boundary that going places is pretty easy. that's about all i liked about it though.

if you are talking about the same building or any of the buildings sharing the alleyway for the parkade, then i'd also say that the alleyway is a bit problematic since people constantly do pickups and dropoffs for the bus/skytrain there even though it's a no stopping zone.

overall it's a safe area but it's overcongested, especially now with more towers coming up and the recent addition of the bus loop. also theres no good walkable grocery.. just that one filipino market that is fine if all you need is like a bunch of cilantro or a can of tomatoes.

Safeway is like a 10-15 minute walk from any of those buildings no?