Stephanie Konefall has new money for a makeover of her south Nanaimo home, plus enough to buy a new property thanks to a recent refinancing of her mortgage.
She among the B.C. residents who have recently been taking advantage of lower interest rates.
“I knew that if I was refinancing and looking at balancing what I had I could probably do better,” said Konefall.
She had a fixed mortgage at 3.9 per cent but after breaking it and paying penalties, she refinanced at 1.99 per cent. She now has access to a lot more money.
A Nanaimo mortgage broker says she’s been swamped with clients who are interested in refinancing to either buy new property or simply get better mortgage terms.
“During the pandemic, we were still busy and in July, August we kept just getting busier and busier. I’d say my volumes doubled in the past month,” said Kim Strynadka of Dominion Lending Integrity Mortgage.
The Canadian Mortgage Brokers Association says despite COVID-19, it’s been a record-breaking summer across the country.
“It’s been an unprecedented summer. I think we’ve seen a lot of pent up demand from prior to the pandemic. Couple that with historically low-interest rates and we haven’t seen any kind of a slowdown,” said Rezo Sabour, the Canadian Mortgage Brokers of B.C. Vice-President.
And with the Bank of Canada indicating mortgage rates will stay low until 2023 the association says many Canadians might find it beneficial to refinance their mortgage.
“If you’ve been in a mortgage that’s 3 percent or higher for the past several years at the moment generally speaking it makes sense to break that term even if there’s a penalty involved because the long term savings of refinancing into a new rate at today’s rates would still benefit you in the long run,” said Sabour.
Konefall says shes excited how it’s working out for her.
“It’s spectacular. I can look forward and expand and I can find my forever place.”
Konefall says despite all the uncertainty in the economy the pandemic is providing new opportunities for those willing to take on some risk.
Kendall Hanson
