At Wednesday's press conference, a reporter asked BoC Chief Tiff Macklem what he'll be doing on Saturday morning, when Trump is expected to hit us with tariffs. Rest assured, he won’t be binge-watching Looney Tunes.

Nope. Instead, he'll be "watching the news," he said, pondering how inflation would react to a U.S.-instigated trade scuffle. And so far, he's not sure.

The BoC admits that even its crack team of model-tweaking PhDs can't predict how inflation will pan out in a 25% tariff situation. For Joe and Jane Mortgagor, what chance do they have to get the rate outlook right: 50/50 if they guess?

All this uncertainty makes mortgage term selection like picking a favourite child—tricky, but not impossible.

VC-backed online mortgage provider, Pine, is piloting a new offering from Zown that boosts buyers' down payments and gives them extra cash for closing costs.

The program uses a well-worn strategy to put money in the buyer's pocket, but it has a few twists. Today, we examine whether the program is just marketing razzle-dazzle or a genuine boon for homebuyers.

Talk about ironic timing.

Mortgage shoppers have stampeded toward variable mortgages lately. Yet, large prime rate discounts are disappearing faster than hors d'oeuvres at a banking conference.

In the last week alone, the average floating-rate spread below prime has shrunk by 5 bps (source: Canadian Mortgage Rate Survey). Signs point to further discount erosion ahead.

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