There once was a time (in 2016 actually) when a client could call and ask what mortgage rate they could expect, and a competent Mortgage Broker could determine the answer in a few seconds. Those days are gone.
And during that same time a larger down-payment and long established credit history would result in a better interest rate. That too is gone.
And also back in the day (yes, 2016) one could refinance their home and expect to get a rate roughly equal to the rate they would enjoy if they were purchasing that same property with a mortgage of the same amount. Yup, you guessed it…gone.
So what’s going on?
The answer is that, in short, the federal government has effectively decided to give preferential rates to home buyers who have very small down-payments. That’s not necessarily what they intended, but it has become a very counter-intuitive result.