Market rebounding?

So, in my last blog entry, I mentioned that rates 5-year fixed rates went up 0.2%. Well, I noticed this week that the rates went up another 0.4% (variable rates are still holding). The posted 5-year fixed rate at the big banks is now 5.85%. I've read that the bond markets have been strong as of late which explains the increase. But still somewhat of a shock that the rates have gone up 0.6% in a couple of weeks.

Something else interesting is how the Ottawa housing market seems to be somewhat bucking the trend. I've been reading that builders have been raising the prices of new homes. Now, I can't say for certain what the puts and takes are given that sometimes they offer incentives to offset their prices. But I did notice that for my particular house that the base price went up by $5k. I popped into the Mattamy sales office to see whether they were offering any kind of incentive. Besides the same "free kitchen appliances" that I got, there was no incentive like the $5k upgrade credit that I got. So, factoring this in, my house went up in price by $2k from when I bought it. Not exactly a huge amount but I wouldn't have thought that prices would have gone up until next year sometime at the earliest.