The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corportation, or CMHC, is now offering another down payment option to Canadian home buyers. This product, called Flex Down, offers buyers a "wider range of sources for their down payment such as borrowed funds and lender cash-back incentives."

They advertise this product as having the following features (these are quoted from CMHC):

• Available for Purchase Transactions
• Loan-to-Value ratios of 90.01% to 95%
• 1 – 2 unit residential properties
• Wider range of sources of down payment permitted
• Flexible financing options – single advance, progress advance and extended amortization periods are available
• Flexibilities available for the purchase of energy-efficient homes

and benefits (so are these):

• Helps Provide Earlier Access to Homeownership – with as little as 5% down using flexible sources of down payment.
  
• Flexible Down Payments – Wider range of sources of down payment permitted.
• Competitive Interest Rates – Access to CMHC insured financing, and as a result, competitive interest rates.
• Availability – Available coast-to-coast-to-coast with no set maximum loan amount.

This all sounds good but I at least with the cash back mortgages buyers to need to be careful about the rate as it can be significantly higher than it would with other mortgage products.

In this video I discuss how the quality of everything associated with the sale of your home will effect it's value. Lousy pictures equal less money, good pictures equal more money; crummy looking sign equals less money, good looking sign equals more money; poor staging, clutter, messy and dirty home equals less money, clean, tidy and staged equals more money. You get the idea. The video is below, I encourage your comments. The video player here is a bit weird. You can also watch this on tv.604homes.com or on my viddler page.

False Creek Real Estate Statistics

Wow! There are are some pretty remarkable numbers here this month. False Creek real estate got hit over the head with a 3 day old baguette this past month. Of the 14 units listed for sale in False Creek in October, NOT ONE, sold! There were only 4 units sold in the whole month and three of those were pre-paid leasehold units! All that being said the average, and median, list price to sale price ratio was a very healthy 98! Take a look at the stats below. I am hoping to add some sexy graphs soon, but I still have some learning to do on the spreadsheet programs.

LISTED IN FALSE CREEK IN OCTOBER

Freehold Strata Units Listed:  11 (20,6,28)
Pre-paid Leasehold Strata Units Listed: 2 (12,2,2)
Non Pre-paid Leasehold Strata Units Listed:  1  ( 2,0,1)
Total Units Listed: 14 (33,8,23)

Median list price: $539,450   ($549,000,$574,950,$599,000)

SOLD IN FALSE CREEK IN OCTOBER

(last 3 month's numbers in brackets)

Sold from listed in October: 0                                 

Freehold Strata Units Sold: 1 (4,28)
Pre-paid Leasehold Strata Units Sold: 3 (3,1,1)
Non Pre-paid Leasehold Strata Units Sold:  0 (0,0,0)
Total Units Sold:  4 (7,3,9)

Average Sold Price:  $384,600 ($541,214 ,$734,000)
Median Sold Price:  $374,950 ($545,000,$550,000)

List Price to Sold Price Ratio: 98%

Average Days on Market: 27 (21,71, 29)
Median Days on Market: 24 (12,61, 14)

Are you thinking ablout making a move in False Creek real estate?  I am always happy to answer your False Creek real estate questions.


This post orignally appeared on my False Creek blog, the False Creek Comet

Vancouver real esate is a favourite topic for the local papers and today was not different, but remember their primary goal is selling newspapers.

Correction: The survey that was quoted as being by CMHC was actually by the Royal Bank, RBC

Oyama Sausage Company Canadian Cheese Festival - November 7,8,9

I haven't got a lot of info on this one, but next Friday, Saturday & Sunday is the Canadian Cheese Festival at the Oyama Sausage Company (annoying flash site) in the Granville Island Market. The Oyama Sausage Co. is one of our family's favourite stops in the market with their free samples and delicious nitratrate free deli meats and sausages. I am sure the cheese is excellent too, but the kids don't appreciate that kind of thing yet. I am hoping to have more info on this one soon.

This post originally appearred on my False Creek blog, the False Creek Comet.