Mortgage costs rise as bond markets miss the good news memo

Lenders’ cost of funding a fixed-rate mortgage continued to trend higher this week.

That was despite encouraging disinflationary data south of the border.

It’s like the rate market is on a mission to push borrowing costs upward for reasons that are percolating under the surface.

If that trend unsettles you as a mortgage shopper, sub-four fixed rates are still available, with five-year default-insured terms as low as 3.94 per cent in Ontario (via Ratebuzz), or roughly 3.99 per cent across most other provinces (through firms like Butler Mortgage and credit unions).

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Three- and four-year terms work fine too, if long commitments make you antsy — although those offers are relatively weak for insured mortgages, where five-year insured fixed pricing is unusually sharp.

In the floating-rate world , forward rates in the bond market are flashing caution, but a sizable minority are climbing aboard variables anyway. Their 60-plus-basis-point upfront pricing advantage is a hell of a drug — one called optimism.

Robert McLister is a mortgage strategist, interest rate analyst and editor of MortgageLogic.news . You can follow him on X at @RobMcLister .

For the best national insured and uninsured mortgage rates , updated daily, please visit our mortgage rate page here .