The Best Mortgage Rate Went Up This Week — But 22 of 25 Lenders Didn't Move

The lowest five-year fixed rate on our lender sheets rose from 4.14% to 4.19% this week. But 22 of the 25 lenders we track did not change their five-year fixed at all, and the median rate sat exactly where it was: 4.39%.

That gap between the headline and the market is the whole story, and you only see it if you record what every lender was quoting rather than just the best one.

What actually moved

Three lenders repriced. One of them — the one that had been holding the sharpest offer — moved 0.15 points on its own, which is three times the change in the headline number. Two others moved 0.05.

The other twenty-two did nothing.

Meanwhile the five-year Government of Canada bond, which is what fixed mortgage rates are actually priced off, rose 0.07 points. So the lenders that moved were roughly tracking their cost of funds. The ones that did not move had margin to absorb it.

This is what a rate "increase" usually looks like up close. Not a market shifting — a handful of lenders at the sharp end pulling back, while the middle stays exactly where it was.

The part that matters more than the rate

The new lowest rate carries a condition the old one did not: it requires a credit score of 720 or higher.

That is a meaningful change, and it is invisible if you only compare numbers. Last week the best available five-year fixed had no credit-score qualifier attached. This week the best one does.

So for a borrower at, say, 680 — a perfectly good score — the lowest rate on the sheet is no longer available at all. The best they can reach is the next tier up, which is 4.24%. The advertised "best rate" moved 0.05, but their actual best rate moved more.

This is the single most common way advertised rates mislead. A rate is not a product on its own. It comes attached to a credit score, a down payment, an insured or uninsured status, a property type and a term. Comparing two rates without comparing those conditions is comparing nothing.

What this means if you are shopping right now

If your credit is above 720, very little changed for you. The best rate available moved five hundredths of a point. On a $600,000 mortgage that is roughly $16 a month.

If your credit is in the high 600s, more changed than the headline suggests. The sharpest offer is now out of reach, and the gap between what gets advertised and what you can actually get has widened. That is worth knowing before you build a budget around a rate you saw online.

If you are renewing, none of this is a reason to rush — but it is a reason to find out where your credit actually sits before you start comparing offers. Checking your own credit does not affect your score, and it changes which rates are genuinely on the table.

Where these numbers come from

We archive the lender rate sheets we receive each week and compare them — every lender row, not just the leading offer. That is what makes it possible to say that three lenders moved and twenty-two did not, which no advertised-rate comparison will tell you.

No lender is named beside a rate here, and these are not offers. What you can actually get depends on your income, credit, down payment and the property itself.

The full picture, including the payment math and the bond chart, is in this month's Ontario mortgage rate report. Current published figures are on the rates page.

Figures reflect the lender sheets effective 4 and 11 August 2026 and the Bank of Canada's published bond yield. Rates change weekly. This is general information, not financial advice for your situation — every mortgage is subject to lender approval, credit review and property qualification (O.A.C.).