Fun Facts on BoC Pauses

The Bank of Canada just slammed the brakes on policy easing, leaving floating-rate borrowers pondering two questions.

1. How long will the prime rate flatline?
2. What happens after the BoC's pause?

If you look back at overnight rate records, you'll immediately notice numerous cases where our central bank paused. These intermissions indicate that the reasons for the prior trend in monetary policy had ceased on balance, at least temporarily.

Ever since the BoC first moved to scheduled announcement dates in December 2000, there have been 20 such pauses.

Those with variable-rate mortgages will need to keep their champagne on ice; the Bank of Canada isn't ready to pop the cork on lower rates just yet. Instead, it left its policy rate at its estimated "neutral" level of 2.75%.

For mortgage shoppers, we'll outline how to survive this will-they-won’t-they rate saga. But before delving into strategies, let's unpack the critical takeaways from today's BoC verdict:

New Home Price Gauge Reveals Emerging Trends

The antics of America's trade-tax tzar threw a wrench in our 2025 spring housing spree, and data are starting to quantify the damage.

Case in point: A fresh Royal LePage survey by Leger. It revealed that nearly half (47%) of prospective buyers have postponed purchasing homes, citing the U.S. trade dispute as their reason.

More Sharing, Less Hassle

If you're looking for a more engaging way to keep your VIPs informed, this latest update has you covered.

Thanks to feedback from our phenomenal members, MLN has become more shareable. MLN Pro members can now transmit one or two entire articles per week to clients, leads and referral sources via email, a secure portal, SMS/text or snail mail. Simply copy and paste the content you wish to share (no forwarding full emails, please) and attribute.

Previously, sharing was capped at 100 words. The problem there was: members had to tell people, “There’s more, but I’m not allowed to show it to you,” like a bad tease.

In any event, problem solved. Here’s a quick look at the new guidelines.

Storms on the Horizon

Higher inflation is now the consensus, but this week's U.S. data offered a mixed bag—that is, a glimmer of hope wrapped in a cautionary tale. Per usual, the rate moves in Yankeeland also had Canadian rate implications.

Consider that:

• A one-minute video conveys up to 1.8 million words of information.
• People linger on a web page 40% to 80% longer if it has a video.
• The average website has just 8 seconds to engage a visitor.

It's worth marinating on the significance of these stats for a moment — because many of your competitors already have.

Building a client mortgage portal has traditionally required a lot of time-consuming and expensive coding. Not anymore. Tools like Scarlett 3.0, a client portal builder for mortgage brokers, have made the process far simpler, faster and less expensive.

Scarlett 3.0 debuted last month for Scarlett Mortgage (POS) users. Here's a quick rundown of eight useful new features that can either make/save brokers more money or keep their customers happier: