A dropping US dollar, a credit crunch and a US housing market collapse. Does it all add up to a buying opportunity for Canadians in the US?
Just a short drive south of the Washington State-B.C. border sits the Horizon at Semiahmoo Resort community, a 650-home development spanning 200 acres nestled on the shores of the Strait of Georgia. When the developers began planning the project, they figured that about half the homes would be snapped up by residents of nearby Seattle, and the other half by Canadians.
That was before parity became a buzzword. Now it appears as though more than 85 per cent of the residences will be sold to Canadian buyers, according to Vince Taylor of Pilothouse Real Estate Inc. in New Westminster, B.C.
“When the magic parity hit the other day, our phones started to ring,” he says. “Everybody wants to find U.S. real estate. The Canadians are coming over the wall. They didn’t build the wall big enough.”
With “nothing more than the pesky border” separating Semiahmoo from Canadians looking for an attractive “green” community for a summer home, Horizon has become coveted real estate. The average price of a house in Semiahmoo is about 50 to 60 per cent less than a similar home in nearby White Rock, B.C., Mr. Taylor says.
My favorite quote from the story: “We always put down 20 per cent in Canada, so what do we care?” Mr. Taylor says.
Uh.. been to Vancouver Mr. Taylor?
