Canadian Investors See Bargains and Are Buying

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by Howard Bell, Your Property Path

I have blogged before about foreign nationals being drawn to American shores for a home that look dirt cheap to them.

Our home prices are off by 1/3 or more in many places. Add to that a currency edge that Europeans and Canadians haven’t seen in decades and American property looks dirt cheap.

NAR

NAR has been watching and reporting on this trend and notes that the largest proportion of foreign buyers of U.S. homes from May 2007 to May 2008 (24%) were Canadian. And that is twice last years number, that’s a trend.

Canada is Feeling Strong

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Canadian Real Estate Association says home prices grew 11% in 2007 from the year before, to an average of $307,265, and they are expected to rise an additional 5.3% in 2008.

“RBC Bank, a U.S. division of Royal Bank Financial Group in Toronto, set up a program that allows Canadians to buy U.S. property worth up to $2 million with a down payment of less than 25%. RBC has doubled the amount of such loans it has issued over the last year, says Alain Forget, a company vice president.” via the Wall Street Journal

Where Are They Buying?

Seems the Canadians are loving Florida and Arizona sunbelts as vacation homes or condos. For agents in those areas they should be focused on ways to reach our northern neighbor. I think locating a Canadian agency willing to work with American agents in retirement and recreational areas of all kinds have an opportunity here that might be less obvious. Here’s How One agency is Doing It. Looks like a great job from here, they call themselves “Team Canada”.

Howard Bell PFP CCRM is the founder/editor of featuring over 450 articles on property management and trade talk for the San Francisco real estate industry. Howard is a property manager in San Francisco and holds a certification in financial planning.

See Howard Bell’s feature Biggest Bailout in US History.

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