Cambridge, ON

How's the market? It's the one question we seem to be hearing over and over again. The market can typically fluctuate within three types of market conditions:

1. Seller's Market

2. Buyer's Market

3. Normal or Balanced Market

And a good indicator of market conditions is to interpret the number of months of listing inventory. This is arrived by taking the total number of listings on the market, and divide that by the average number of sales per month.

This will give you the number of months of inventory. 4-6 months is a Seller's Market, 6-8 months indicates Balanced and 8-10 months equals a Buyer's Market.

Looking at the information available on Cambridge we see that there are currently 497 active listings and that we were averaging 70 sales over the last 2 months. This gives us 7.1 months of inventory, indicating that we are currently in a balanced market. Markets shift all the time, making it necessary to stay current on the factors affecting these numbers.

Send me an email at szabolcs.pall@century21.ca for more information or visit ready2move.ca for more contact info.

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Finance Minister Jim Flaherty pledged today to triple the amount of mortgages the government can buy from banks to as much as C$75 billion.

The Canadian Gov't, using its crown corporation, the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC), purchased $25 billion in mortgages last month.

Allow me to explain in simply terms what the government is in fact doing...

The gov't via CMHC has insured many mortgages for the banks. In other words, CMHC has sold the banks default insurance on mortgages that the banks have provided to their clients, which guarantees that CMHC will cover any shortfall realized by the banks in the event of default by their clients. The banks issues these mortgages to their clients using their own money, and the bank waits for repayment based on the terms of the mortgage, as with any other typical mortgage.

As a result of the recent program announced by the Cdn Gov't to purchase mortgages, CMHC is in essence purchasing mortgages from the banks that they have previously insured.... in other words, purchasing mortgages from the banks that they were already on the hook for. These purchases allow the banks to cash in these mortgages now (so that they can free up cash to ideally put towards lending to clients interested in new mortgages), while CMHC and the Cdn gov't takes on no greater risk exposure for these mortgages since they were previously insured by them.

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Gina Burgio, Mortgage Agent
VERICO Designer Mortgages Inc.
Toll Free: 1-877-345-6265
Fax: 1-877-345-6256
Email: gina@ginaburgio.com
www.ginaburgio.com

Each VERICO Broker is an independent owner operator.

Something that happens to real estate agents on a very regular basis is the issue of getting the price right on a new listing. Sellers want to get top dollar for their property, and so do we, but sometimes the "seller's price" is over the top and totally unrealistic. Especially in this slower market, it is very important to get their price in a marketable range that will encourage showings and offers.

Here's a story that happened in our brokerage recently that demonstrates the importance of getting the price right. The seller had a country property in a good, central location. The house was really nice with many updates and recent renovations.

We gave them an asking price of $ 450,000 about 18 months ago. They felt this was low, and decided to try and sell privately for $ 699,000. Later they listed with another broker at the same price without success. Well over a year passed in the process and they did reduce the price a bit, but nothing substantial.

In the end, after 18 months of the stress of trying to sell their property, they sold it for $ 415,000. I am sure everyone was dispointed in the end.

Nobody will ever know for sure, but we're pretty confident that they could have sold it for more than that with a year's less stress.

Any agent will tell you that they don't want to take overpriced listings. You can spend thousands of dollars advertising without a realistic chance of seeing a return on your time and financial investment.

It's an ongoing battle over a real estate career to help a seller to understand how important it is to set the price correctly

For many people, the idea of letting someone live in your home for a definite period of time seems foreign. But others view it as an opportunity to knock a few grand off their mortgage, especially if circumstance has them relocating to another city for an extended period of time.

Most Lease terms are for a period of one year, but can also be for longer periods. As always, you should work with your Realtor® to arrange the necessary paperwork. Not only to ensure that your rights are well protected, but to ensure that once you accept an offer, the transaction closes in a timely manner. This allows you to look forward to your pending move knowing, that your single biggest asset is well protected and your mortgage $15K - $20K lighter.

What are some conditions to include in a Residential Lease Agreement? Send me an email at szabolcs.pall@century21.ca to find out.

Among households that renovated in 2007, 41 percent contracted out all the work, while 31 percent did the work themselves or with the help of friends or family. Over a quarter of households who renovated did a mix of both hiring a contractor and doing a portion of the work themselves. In 2007, compared to 2006, the share of households that decided to do the work themselves decreased, while a larger share of households contracted out all the work or contracted out part of the work and did some themselves. What renovations are you prepared to attempt, and which ones will you contract out

Send your comments to szabolcs.pall@century21.ca