Broker: Variable will continue to trump fixed.

by Jamie Henry | 30 Oct 2014

The message from several brokers is that variable rates still reign supreme, following a story about one financial professional’s personal mortgage blunder.

“From what I analyze daily, low rates will be with us for a long time,” Brian Lambert of Real Mortgage Associates wrote on MortgageBrokerNews.ca. “Even if they rise, it would be only marginally as governments would have to allow time to see what effects that would cause any economy.”

The comment was in response to a story about a financial planner who switched his mortgage from a variable to a fixed rate.

Ted Rechtshaffen — president of TriDelta Financial — speaking to the Financial Post, admitted that in 2009 he switched his variable rate mortgage to a fixed, after heeding warnings that variable rates would be on the rise. And that the move was a mistake.

“I was wrong. I had a variable rate mortgage and in 2009 I pulled the plug and went fixed,” Rechtshaffen, financial planner and president of TriDelta Financial told the Post. “I did mess up, but my question was what benefit do I get locking-in versus going variable?”

It seems brokers will be advising their clients to avoid the same mistake – despite any posturing from the big banks.

“As mortgage professionals we listen to a lot of noise coming from the media and big banks. You really need to read between the lines,” Lambert wrote. “Big banks agenda is to scare clients into locking in to a fixed rate, this secures their profit over a fixed term. The media just churns the message as it makes for news.”