It took some time, but mortgage rates are now responding to last week’s plunge in bond yields stemming from fears about systemic financial risk in the U.S. and Europe.
As of Monday, numerous mortgage lenders and brokerages had started cutting fixed mortgage rates, some by as much as 60 basis points, or 0.60%. That follows a roughly 70-bps plummet in 2- and 5-year Government of Canada bond yields (which typically lead fixed mortgage rates) in just a two-week period.