Canadians stampede into U.S. real estate

Eric Beauchesne, Canwest News ServicePublished: Thursday, September 11, 2008


Canadians have been flooding into the depressed U.S. housing market, purchasing a record number of homes south of the border, and twice as many as a year earlier.
Armed with what until recently was a strong currency, most were also paying cash, according to the 2008 National Association of Realtors annual profile of international home-buying activity in the U.S.
Canadians have replaced Mexicans as the top foreign buyers of U.S. properties, the survey revealed.
The surge in purchases of U.S. properties by Canadians is due to the combination of the stronger dollar, a drop in U.S. house prices, and last winter's record snowfall, John Clinkard, a consulting economist with Reed Construction Data, said in an analysis of the report Wednesday.
The annual report, based on a survey of U.S. realtors, found that in the 12 months ended last May, nearly a quarter of foreign buyers of U.S. properties were from Canada, double the proportion of a year earlier, reflecting both a surge in Canadian buyers to a record high and a drop in purchases by other foreigners.
"Condominiums were most popular among those foreign buyers from Canada," it said, noting that nearly half of all properties purchased by Canadian buyers were condominium apartments.
Florida and Arizona were the most popular states for Canadian buyers, accounting for more than 60 per cent of their purchases.
The amounts Canadians paid for their properties were relatively modest compared with other foreign purchasers. The median price -- with half higher and half lower -- of properties purchased by Canadians was $277,800 US, well below the $450,000 US by buyers from China, and less than the $297,000 US paid by all foreign buyers. Among the six top nationalities of foreign buyers of U.S. properties, only Mexicans paid a lower median price than Canadians.
Only 5.1 per cent of Canadian buyers paid more than $1 million US.

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I thought this article might be interesting, I am sure I am no different than most other Canadians that think about owning US properties when the snow starts to fly. In the last year I know of or have heard of people that have purchased properties in Phoenix or vicinity. I have been to Phoenix in the last year to look at properties and get educated to the market. I have found it overwhelming.