Monday Market and Mortgage News - January 10, 2011 - Edmonton & Calgary

First Foundation’s Best Rates to Open the Week:

Term Rates

1 Year 2.75%
2 Year 3.10%
3 Year 3.25%
4 Year 3.69%
5 Year 3.74%
7 Year 4.75%
10 Year 5.15%

ARM / Variable 2.20%
Line of Credit 3.50%

Qualifying Rate 5.19%
Prime Rate 3.00%

Market News

The S&P /TSX composite index dropped 27.18 points to 13,245.12, while the TSX Venture Exchange gained 8.01 points to 2,233.4.

The Toronto stock market closed lower for a fifth straight session Monday, with investor buying sentiment muted by reports that Portugal is facing mounting pressure to accept a bailout as the country’s borrowing costs surged.

Also…

According to an article in the Montreal Gazette, Canada’s job market performed somewhat better than expected last month, with gains concentrated in full-time, private-sector employment, in industrial sectors and for those younger than 25.

Here’s an excerpt:

There were 22,000 additional people working in Canada last month, Statistics Canada said Friday. That slightly exceeded economists’ expectations for gains of 20,000. Most experts anticipated a surge in people looking for work would cause the unemployment rate to rise to 7.7%, but it remained steady at 7.6%.

The gains for December came from full-time employment, which provided jobs for 38,000 more people last month.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the December jobs report was “encouraging,” but unemployment rates “remain too high.”

Alberta unemployment rate is 5.6%.

Read the full article here.

Mortgage News

The latest CAAMP Stats have been released and can be viewed here. Some of the stats that pertain to the Edmonton and Calgary area, as well as Alberta, are as follows:

Average MLS resale price for local markets – November 2010

Calgary – $398,619 Edmonton – $318,538

Total New Housing Starts for Nov 2010 (Seasonally adjusted and annualized)

Alberta – 21,100

If you’d like to know more about First Foundation’s best mortgage rates, please feel free to contact one of our licensed mortgage brokers.