Edmonton Mortgage Blog

Prime rate remains unchanged!

January 24, 2024 | Posted by: Natalie Wellings

The Bank of Canada has left their key interest rate unchanged in their first rate announcement of 2024. This decision does not come as a surprise as most analysts were expecting that the prime rate would remain unchanged.

Many experts are predicting that the central bank will start cutting the prime rate at some point in 2024 though exactly when remains unclear. Let’s hope it’s soon because prime at 7.20% just plain sucks for many of us with home equity lines of credit or variable rate mortgages. The good news is that sentiment out there is quite positive, many people are wanting to do shorter term mortgages with the hopes that rates will stabilize and come down soon. As always, I will keep you posted on any changes that occur!  

The stress test qualifying rate is 5.25% or the mortgage rate plus 2.00% (whichever is higher).

The next scheduled rate announcement by the Bank of Canada is: March 6th, 2024.

Note: this will announce any changes to the prime lending rate which affects variable-rate mortgages (not fixed ones).

Here is the history of the prime rate over the last year or so...
 

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