Snowbirds get to move up the ladder
Two hours after his flight landed in Phoenix, Calgary resident Doug Farley already was cruising the city’s vast stuccoed suburbs in search of the one attraction Canadians can’t seem to get enough of these days, cheap homes.
There are thousands of them here: almost new, unoccupied and dropping in value. The mortgage meltdown, combined with a surging Canadian currency, has Farley — and many of his countrymen — dreaming of winter golf on grass that’s always green…
“My dollar’s the same as your dollar, finally,” Farley said, grinning as he peered through a pool fence at a sparsely populated condominium complex in Chandler, a Phoenix suburb…
In Arizona, Jason Sirockman of Edmonton, Alberta, said he watched as home owners flooded the market with 58,000 homes, more than twice the amount in 2005 when home values peaked.
“Fifteen of my friends are on buying trips down here, and we’re all cheap,” Sirockman said. He brought his family to Scottsdale this month while he submitted a lowball all-cash offer for a three-bedroom home…
Sirockman returned to Canada without a house after the owner of the Scottsdale home turned down his offer. No worries. Sirockman told the seller there were a thousand other homes like his on the market, and someone was going to deal.
It’s an ill wind…
Well, maybe it’s not a bad thing. We’ve had that trade deficit forever – maybe we can get the canadians to purchase some land no one except illegals seems to want anything.
Then they become more vested in stopping illegals which helps us overall.
Win-win.
Hardly an Ill wind John. It’s just the market clearing. If you think only the Canadians are doing this – think again. Florida is currently being supported (Miami specifically) by cash buyers from Europe whom have a 2:1 advantage on our dollar.
If they find the homes cheap based on currency exchange rates, then our market clears faster and the bottom is hit with much less pain than if only USD’s were to be used.
Don’t worry people, the clasist health care and the rampant xenophobia will scare them off eventually.
This makes me think of all the Europeans and Americans that used to run off to almost-third-world countries for vacations. For a thousand dollars, you could live like a king for two weeks.
So that’s what we’re becoming; An almost-third-world country where Europeans and Canadians go for vacations.
I can already see myself pulling a rickshaw full of Canadians around town for $1. 🙂
You guys would otherwise have to earn that Canadian money, and so lets face it, pimping granny’s cottage to wealthy foreigners makes a whole lot of sense when you have nothing else to sell them.
Funny, no one seemed to have a problem when Americans were snapping up Canadian homes and forcing bidding wars that often resulted in prices of $40K over “asking” price.
RBG
Great! let them ‘come on down’! A little sunshine and warmth are great international relations! Florida is over run with Finns, Norwegians, and Swedes and they are a blast! I for one welcome out foreign masters…
ha!
One if by land.
Two if by sea.
And now, three if by air.
The loonies are coming, the loonies are coming…
The local Indian population will be very excited with all these new Bingo players arriving.
The women must be entertained when their men are out golfing.
The old Eastern Airlines company (long defunct) used to have an ad on TV with a guy in a beach chair inviting snow-bound New Yorkers to “Come on down” on their planes to Florida.
Then the New Yorker magazine had a cartoon showing the Devil himself on TV beckoning viewers to “Come on down!”
The more Canadians among us the better, I’d say.
(As long as they don’t mind seeing a lot of us passing them heading North… to get away from the overheated conditions down South).
I read the article today. Can’t blame them. They profiled a guy from Edmonton paying cash for a Phoenix condo. I know where I’d rather be in January!
They can buy mine! MLS#MLS# 7010936