The central question should be: If your mortgage rate jumps one or two percentage points by the time you renew, can you handle a 5-per-cent to 20-per-cent leap in your payments?
If yes, you can still find variable rates as low as prime minus 1.25 per cent (insured) and prime minus 0.86 per cent (uninsured). Anything better than prime minus 0.70 per cent offers solid risk-reward in this economy.
If you can't comfortably handle a near-term jump in payments, you're probably more suited to a five-year fixed. That's not such a bad thing since the best five-year fixed rates are still below 3 per cent.
