An article in the Calgary Herald based around a study by BMO shows folks in Calgary are investing the most in the US right now. After a very cold winter that isn't surprising...
If you have any questions or need a connection to a network of elite agents in the USA, feel free to connect with Condoguys to get a referral in the city you are interested in.
People in Alberta are the most interested in buying residential property in the United States in a survey of Canadians.
A new survey from BMO Bank of Montreal, conducted by Leger Marketing and released Friday, reveals 31 per cent of those surveyed in Alberta would now consider purchasing a property in the United States, compared with one in five Canadians.
Tanya Eklund and her husband Chad Hughes, of Calgary, purchased a townhome just outside of Scottsdale, Ariz., in Fountain Hills about three years ago.
They bought the 1,300-square-foot townhome for $289,900 US and Eklund figures a similar property in Calgary would have cost $100,000 more.
"We actually rent it out," said Eklund, who is a realtor in Calgary with Re/Max Real Estate Central. "We wanted to get down there but didn't really have a lot of time to look for properties . . . It was a really good investment opportunity."
Diane Olson, a realtor in the Phoenix area who specializes in finding homes for Canadian clients, said "business is beyond belief."
"We're selling hundreds a year," she said.
"People are a little skeptical of what's going to happen in the stock market. They'd rather have a tangible asset. And when do you buy? You buy real low and I'll tell you our properties are really low. And now that the (Canadian) dollar is over par you put all that together and people go 'why wouldn't we?' (buy in the U.S.)."
Olson said she sells many investment homes as properties are rented out to people immediately after a sale.
"The prices have dropped. Our inventory is down to just over 31,000 homes on the market. Way back they used to be 50,000 plus and probably in the last month and a half, two months it was around 40,000 or 39,000," said Olson. "It tells me that supply is getting eaten up."
In the BMO study, Canadians indicated that both lower prices and the strong Canadian dollar have added to their interest in purchasing property in the U.S. and growing their assets.
BMO said that overall housing prices in the United States have fallen by 30 per cent over the past four years. However, prices in regions that are traditionally destinations for Canadian snowbirds have dropped even more. For example prices in Tampa have dropped 44 per cent, Phoenix fell 54 per cent, Las Vegas, 57 per cent, and Miami, 49 per cent, according to BMO.
"Now, with the American economy and employment gaining strength, home sales should pick up and put a floor under soft prices," said Sal Guatieri, senior economist with BMO. "We expect prices to rise over time as the overhang of unsold homes eases."
He added that over the long term the U.S. greenback should strengthen as well.
That would provide an opportunity for capital appreciation for Canadians who purchased U.S. property at a low price while the Canadian dollar was high.
Following Alberta, the Canadians most interested in buying property in the U.S. were in British Columbia, at 28 per cent.
mtoneguzzi@calgaryherald.com© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald
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http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Albertans+most+interested+buying+homes+survey/4508138/story.html#ixzz1Hm185vYf
