> For the American's that don't know. In Canada our banks won't give you a 25 or 30 rate. Section 10 of the Canada's federal Interest Act states (emphasis adde

> For the American's that don't know. In Canada our banks won't give you a 25 or 30 rate. Section 10 of the Canada's federal Interest Act states (emphasis added): > 10 (1) Whenever any principal money or interest secured by mortgage on real property or hypothec on immovables is not, under the terms of the mortgage or hypothec, payable until a time more than five years after the date of the mortgage or hypothec, then, if at any time after the expiration of the five years, any person liable to pay, or entitled to pay in order to redeem the mortgage, or to extinguish the hypothec, tenders or pays, to the person entitled to receive the money, the amount due for principal money and interest to the time of payment, as calculated under sections 6 to 9, together with three months further interest in lieu of notice, no further interest shall be chargeable, payable or recoverable at any time after the payment on the principal money or interest due under the mortgage or hypothec. * https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/i-15/page-1.html https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/i-15/page-1.html So since penalties on cancelling >5 year term mortgages are restricted, which means banks have no (major) recourse if you cancel a >5 year mortgage, so the banks have little incentive to offer >5 year mortgages. (Amortization periods are >5 years of course.) The US has no such restriction, and so if you cancel a 30 year mortgage there, banks can theoretically go after you for the entire amount of lost profits. Note that, while there have been some spikes, interest rates have been on a generally centuries-long trend of going lower: * https://www.visualcapitalist.com/700-year-decline-of-interest-rates/ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/700-year-decline-of-interes... * https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/working-paper/2020/eight-centuries-of-global-real-interest-rates-r-g-and-the-suprasecular-decline-1311-2018 https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/working-paper/2020/eight-cen... Renewing often has, in general, gotten you a lower rate. It's why, historically speaking in Canada, going with a variable rate mortgage would have been better at least 75% of the time, as possibly as much as 90%: * https://www.ratespy.com/the-most-misconstrued-study-in-mortgage-history-03105681 https://www.ratespy.com/the-most-misconstrued-study-in-mortg... * http://astarmortgage.com/pdf/moshe.pdf http://astarmortgage.com/pdf/moshe.pdf We just happening to be in a rising rate environment currently. This may be a reason, and not the only one, or unrelated to the situation entirely. > Section 10 of the Interest Act (Canada) allows a borrower who is a natural person to prepay a mortgage loan or hypothec having a term of 5 years or more at any time after the first 5 years, in exchange for 3 months’ interest payments (in addition to the principal and interest owing). This right of prepayment protects individuals from being locked into a long-term mortgage at a high interest rate with either no ability to prepay or with prepayment subject to a large penalty. However, the same rule restricts individuals from negotiating their own prepayment terms which may preclude them from securing more favorable long-term financing. * https://obj.ca/article/five-interest-rate-provisions-be-aware-prior-financing https://obj.ca/article/five-interest-rate-provisions-be-awar... * https://www.mondaq.com/canada/real-estate-and-construction/132798/prepayment-rights-under-the-interest-act https://www.mondaq.com/canada/real-estate-and-construction/1...*