Why Canadians are selling their Phoenix-area homes
Apr 20, 2015, 5:58 PM | Updated: 7:32 pm
It’s a perfect storm, eh?
Combine low oil prices, the falling Canadian dollar and the rise of Valley real estate prices and you get a lot of our neighbors from the North putting for sale signs in their Arizona yards.
Terri Bozok from Edmonton, Alberta owns a second home in Mesa. She has no plans to sell but it’s a different story for many of her Canadian friends who own property here.
“They bought when prices were low and when the Canadian dollar was at par,” she said. “They’ve made their profit and will make even more money when they convert the U.S dollars into Canadian.”
One of those friends bought several rental homes during the housing crash and is now getting them ready for sale.
“He’s playing the dollar,” Bozok said. “He’s planning to hold the profits in a U.S. account and wait to see if the Canadian dollar drops even further before exchanging his money.”
While some are selling for profit, others are selling out of necessity.
“For retired snowbirds, a weaker Canadian dollar makes it much more expensive to spend the winter here,” Bozok said. “Many are on fixed incomes.”
But it’s not just snowbirds who spend months at a time here. The ripple effect of oil industry jobs jeopardizes the vacations of many Canadians who enjoy spending just a few days or a few weeks in the desert.
Realtor Diane Brennan hosts That Real Estate Show Sundays at 8 a.m on KTAR News 92.3 FM.
