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The Great Canadian Real Estate Opportunity

Julie Broad
2 min read
The Great Canadian Real Estate Opportunity

I’m honoured to be a part of the BiggerPockets team of excellent contributors. And no, my dear US readers, that is not a typo. In Canada we spell things a little different. Favour, honour, and labour are all spelled with a “u. And that is just a few of the things we do a little differently up here …

I know I have the attention of Canadians, but why should anybody else care about the Canadians, especially when we’re talking real estate?

Well, if I was an American real estate investor I would be learning all about the Canadian folks and how I can reach out to them because Canadians are buying up American properties in record numbers.  In fact I have heard several folks say that nearly 30% of all US foreclosures are being purchased by Canadians and Canadians are now the number one purchaser of American real estate outside of US residents.

So, if you’re a wholesaler, flipper, realtor or other real estate professional and if you’re in Florida, Nevada, Arizona or California especially, then you should be paying close attention to what is happening with the Canadians because we’re presenting a very good opportunity for you. You see:

  • Here in Canada our homes are expensive. The average price of a home in Canada as of January 2010 was $328,537 (according to CREA). In Vancouver, where I live, the average price of a home is $637,637. When you take condos out of that the number rises closer to $900,000! And that is up 15% over last year.
  • Our economy is recovering. We slowed down but in general, the economy in Canada is doing fairly well. Many people lost money in the stock market but it’s coming back now and consumer confidence is increasing.
  • Our dollar is nearly at parity with the US.
  • We have cold winters up here (but almost nobody lives in an igloo) and most Canadians dream of owning a place in a warmer climate.

When you put all that together you can understand why homes in sunny states like Florida and Arizona look like an incredible bargain to Canadians. Many Canadians see opportunities in the warm areas, our dollar is strong and we’re tired of freezing our butts off 6 months of the year.

We’ll talk another day about how you can reach out to prospective Canadians … but for now I just wanted to introduce you to the great Canadian opportunity. And while we represent only 10% of the US population, we are actively looking to share a little of your fine sunshine.

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Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.