Interest Rates are Rising

I had the privilege of being interviewed by the Vancouver Sun last week about the fact that interest rates are rising, and wanted to share some snippets of that article here with you.
The post is about the current [and more to come] interest rate increase, and how that affects families and home-owners and their day-to-day budget/affordability factor.
Benjamin Tal, deputy chief economist at CIBC world markets said: “Increased rates due to a rebounding U.S. economy are good news in the long term, but in the short term may mean more belt-tightening for those looking to buy a home or who have already leveraged themselves to the hilt to finance an existing mortgage”.
This was where I was quotes:
“Geoff Lee, another mortgage broker in Vancouver, said he doesn’t think homeowners — or prospective ones — should panic just yet.
He’s not convinced the hikes are an indication of a steady upward trend.
“It’s like a gas war — as soon as one lender is gonna knock it back down, then you’re going to see people follow,” he said. “There’s really no reason why the fixed rates should be increasing, other than (the banks are) trying to make some money in an environment where they haven’t made much money at all.”
The post goes continues on to say:
“Compared to historic interest rates, which decades ago were commonly in the double digits, a four per cent borrowing rate is nothing to get excited about for some economists.”
It’s a great article and I’m honored to be a part of it. You can read it, in it’s entirety, here.