A seventh straight hold at 2.25%
Seven decisions in a row without a move. Prime has sat at 4.45% since the Bank's last cut in late October 2025, so if you are in a variable rate, the payment you make in September is the one you have been making for most of the past year. The Bank pointed to inflation hovering near 3% on persistently high gasoline prices, and to new US tariffs and Canadian counter-measures making the growth outlook harder to read.
In payment terms, it is worth being clear about the size of the thing everyone is waiting for. A quarter-point change moves a mortgage payment by roughly $14 a month for every $100,000 borrowed, on a 25-year amortization — about $46 a month on the $330,000 or so that Fort McMurray's average sale price supports with 10% down. That adds up over a five-year term, but it is smaller than most people picture, and it is almost never what decides whether a file gets approved. Run your own numbers on the calculator and look at what lenders are actually offering today rather than planning around a cut that has not arrived.
Locally, supply is the tighter constraint. July is the most recent month reported: 2.38 months of supply, 343 active listings — down about 20% from a year earlier — and 144 sales, up a third year over year, against an average sale price of $356,489. In a market that tight, what you negotiate on price and how quickly you can firm up move your budget more than another quarter point would.
With rates flat, the file itself is the variable worth working on. If your income here includes overtime, shift premium or a bonus, how a lender averages it decides what you qualify for — and lenders genuinely differ on that. Getting two years of that income documented and presented properly is the part you control, and on most Fort McMurray files it is worth more than waiting on the Bank.
What the Bank said
“The Bank of Canada today held its target for the overnight rate at 2.25%, with the Bank Rate at 2.5% and the deposit rate at 2.20%. With the economy and inflation evolving broadly as forecast in the July MPR, Governing Council agreed to leave the policy rate unchanged.”
The rate path around this decision
For context, unemployment was running at about 6.4% and inflation at 3% around this decision.
Where this leaves you
Rate announcements make headlines; approvals turn on your own numbers. If you're buying, renewing or refinancing in Fort McMurray, the useful next step is finding out what you actually qualify for — see current rates, run the math, or start an application. You can also follow the local market in our Fort McMurray housing market reports.