The Canadians are coming

An article in the Wall Street Journal details the trend in Canadians buying homes south of their border, capitalizing on the value of the Canadian dollar vs. the U.S. dollar and the housing slump in the United States. The article notes that some U.S. real estate agents are taking note of the influx and catering to Canadian buyers. Mark Carvalho launched a Web site called Canadians2Arizona.com, for example, and another agent, Mark Dziedzic, launched ArizonaforCanadians.com. (See an Inman News Special Report on international real estate.) The article cites a National Association of Realtors study released in August, which found that the largest share of foreign buyers from May 2007 to May 2008 were from Canada (see Inman News article).

The article offers the tale of a Montreal computer engineer who was greeted with a "Bonjour" from a fellow Canadian resident in the condo development in Hollywood, Fla., where he purchased a unit, and of the bartender in St. Petersburg, Fla., who knew how to mix up a Bloody Caesar, a popular drink in Canada.

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