It has been some time now since the Federal Government amended some rules for qualifying for a mortgage. Today I wish to highlight a fact that might seem hard to believe. What is happening in our mortgage interest rate environment today is that lenders are offering a lower interest rate for clients that have less than 20% down payment. You are probably thinking that seems backwards as the larger down payment should get you a lower rate. In reality the opposite is happening. If you have less than 20% down payment the mortgage is insured with CMHC or GE and the client has to pay a mortgage insurance premium that gets added to the mortgage or can be paid at the onset of the mortgage. As an example a 5yr fixed rate today may be as low as 2.59% with less than 20% down payment and as low as 2.79% if a client has 20% or more down payment. Same holds true for a variable rate mortgage. As an example a 5yr variable rate today may be as low as 2% with less than 20% down payment and as low as 2.30% if a client has 20% or more down payment. Sometimes, believe it or not it is to a client's advantage to pay the insurance premium even if they have 20% down payment and obtain the lower rate. There are lots of caveats to these options so now, more than ever, is the time to utilize a Mortgage Professional.