With the Bank of Canada set to raise interest rates, mortgage brokers have been flooded with calls from home buyers/owners.

While no one wants to pay more interest, Stacey Scott, a broker for Mortgage Architects, shares homeowners can expect to see changes.

"We have seen a bit of an increase on the fixed side over the past few days, nothing detrimental, but we have seen it."

Bank of Canada rate has held steady for the past seven years, and this morning it was announced that rates will go up by 0.25% on the variable side as well.

It's not a time for mass panic though, shares Scott, "obviously everyone's looking to get the best rate and as mortgage agents we want to do that for our clients looking to purchase a house but to put it in perspective on the fixed side on a $350,000 mortgage at maybe a 2.49 rate right now and moving up to a 2.69 rate we are looking at about a $36 difference in payments per month. On the variable side we are looking at quite the possibility of a 0.25% increase, nothing expensive."

Scott has taken many phone calls this week from home owners on a floating rate wondering if now is the time to lock in. "They are not going to sky rocket, if you are in a variable product right now we are really looking at why did you take that variable. Variable has some advantages over the fixed when it comes to pay out penalties and things like that and how long do you have left in your variable term? If you are kind of two, three years in to a good variable rate a lot of times the lower rates will make up for when they increase a little bit right now. I don't think there is any reason for mass panic."

The government implemented the stress testing rules last fall for homeowners putting less than 20% down and while it may have bumped some people out of the market, the rules were created for times like these. "We are stress testing you on the application to make sure when rates increase we are not putting you into financial difficulty. Stress testing for your income..your total debt servicing (all of your debts including your mortgage) we're trying to stay under that 42% mark, based on the stress test. So right now being at 4.64 so if you're getting 2.69 but qualified at 4.64 we know you've got some room there."

The long term forecast is rates will continue to rise as the economy continues to stabilize. "We will start to see steady increase. The Bank of Canada rate has either held steady or decreased, we all knew at some point we're going to have to move up. They won't do anything drastic, they have been very careful and very diligent about monitoring what the economy can handle as we move forward. You're not going to wake up one morning and we've jumped 2%, it will be a gradual increase they will see how the market handles it and how it is reflected."

Even if you are not up for renewal/buying and you want to know if you should lock in, Scott suggests calling your broker or banker and having those discussions.

If you have questions for Scott you can find info here.