Mortgage rates are about to head up!

The Bank of Canada is expected to start increasing its overnight rates this summer, moving from 1 per cent to 2 per cent by the end of the year. Whether you own a house or are looking to buy, rising mortgage rates are your enemy. Rising rates will make affording a first home much harder – so much so that you’ll pay more even if housing prices decline. Higher mortgage costs will also shrink the cash flow of families that stretched to buy a home but were getting by in a low-rate world – potentially by thousands of dollars a year.

This is what rates used to look like...which way is it likely to go? People looking for a home face astronomically high prices in some cities, but they benefit hugely from very low mortgage rates. What a dilemma these people face – buy now to lock in manageable borrowing costs for a while, or risk higher mortgage rates while hoping for housing prices to fall.