Carola Singer

If you would like to have mortgage rates showing on your website and updated regularly without a cost to you here is a way to do it:

Go to my website www.carolasinger.com go to "link-to-us" copy/paste the link to the mortgage rates onto your site. Our rates are constantly updated by our host. As soon as they do it will automatically be updated on your mortgage rate-link you copied from my website. The best part: there is no cost to you.

a 5-year variable closed can be done at prime minus 0.20 = 2.05

It's nice to see variable with discounts again versus variable with premiums.

I know that people tend to ask for a 5-year term most of the time. The question is whether this is really in their best interest. Most of us have been there and when I got my first mortgage everybody from our parents, to friends advised us to get a 5-year term. From my experience over the past in facilitating mortgages and from the feedback from our lenders the majority of people will not fulfill their 5-year term. As a matter of fact they usually want to refinance or consolidate some debt between that 3- and 4-year mark and will pay a payout-penalty accordingly. One of our lenders tailored a product specifically to those clients and it's a smokin' deal:

42-month term at 3.75% oac

They get an awesome rate and are saving a lot of money in payout-penalties should they fall in this category.

Food for thought.

For more information check out my website or give me a call.

www.carolasinger.com

Carola Singer

The signs increasingly indicate Canada will be out of recession by the end of the year, if not slightly sooner, even though consumers remain wary and unemployment is ticking higher, new data show.

Two separate economic indexes that gauge the conditions that create economic growth rose Tuesday, suggesting the economy was beginning to heal and growth would resume before the end of the year. However, without consumers on board, that growth is expected to grind along slowly.

The Desjardins Leading Index rose for a second consecutive month in May, to be up 1.1% after a 0.5% rise in April.

"If the DLI continues to rise this summer, the current cycle's trough could be reached as of the fall, allowing a real recovery to materialize after that," said Hélène Bégin, a senior economist at Desjardins.

All components of the index, with the exception of consumption, rose in the month. The financial component became positive, the export component stabilized and the housing group posted a large increase. Despite these improvements, consumers continue to retrench amid the uncertain employment outlook.

Ms. Bégin said the need to rebuild savings and a rising number of bankruptcies, which are up 15% since the start of the year, would weigh on consumption for the remainder of the year.

"A strong comeback is unlikely as households are in a fragile financial situation," she said. "Consumption's coming recovery could be fairly moderate and it will set the tone for the economic recovery overall."

Meanwhile, the Ivey Purchasing Managers Index, an indicator of business activity, jumped more than 20% to 58.2 in June. A reading above 50 indicates an increase in activity. The employment index for June remained at 50, while supplier deliveries rose to 51.9 and prices increased to 60.4. Inventories was the only component to register a decline in activity, slipping to 43.

The improvement in the index was a welcome sign. However, Millan Mulraine, an economics strategist at TD Securities, noted that activity remained weak, particularly when adjusted for seasonal changed. He said headline PMI rose a more modest 11% to 48.4 in May once seasonally adjusted.

"On the whole, with the headline index on a seasonally adjusted basis remaining below the all-important 50-threshold, it suggests that the Canadian economy is continuing to contract, even though at a diminishing pace," he said.

Building permit figures released Tuesday by Statistics Canada were also better than expected and suggested a rise in construction activity in the coming months. The number of building permits issued in May rose a strong 14.8% from the previous month and pushed the value of permits above the $5-billion mark for the first time since October 2008.

Alia McMullen, Financial Post

This is a time where we have to go back to basics. I'm sure brokers that have dealt with their clients in a professional manner and used good judgement how they handled certain mortgages will do fine even versus brokers that got a little "greedy" not realizing there is a time when they have to work their existing database and won't have new originations coming in. That integrity and honesty goes a long ways in business and it will make a world of difference in a market like this. With the uncertainty in the markets people will need us more than ever and they will choose who has earned their trust.