If you did 5% down ($15K) for a $300k mortgage, you'd pay $11.4K for the CMHC insurance vs $8.4K for 10% down plus interest (which varies depending on how much you put down).To build on Theresa's foundation:  There was a time where the "better" interest rate through an insured mortgage justified the insurance premium ... in our low-interest rate, stagnant environment of the past decade, that's no longer true.  

It does not have the social environment he wants and he has become unhappy living there.

@Saravanan Varadan I really like the way you're weighing the macro environment in your decision making process. 

College kids and their parents are emotional and emotion is incredibly tough to manage.

Thanks to everyone who make this environment possible.

The incredible financing options available to you in your first or any house-hack are a primary avantage and really, in my opinion, shouldn't be discarded.

The cash flow sounds like an incredible opportunity.

Obviously an incredibly broad question (dependent on market, economy, demographics, neighborhood etc), but has anybody seen this statistic anywhere or crunched the numbers to get a rough figure? 

Don't get me wrong, any and all recs should be vetted to the nth degree, but throwing out a name of somebody you haven't even worked with is incredibly irresponsible, IMO. 

@Tue Huynh-Nhut Vo This was incredibly helpful!