From floridarealtors.org
Where should real estate investors put their money in 2016? Forbes teamed up with North Carolina-based data company Local Market Monitor to produce its list of 2016 Best Buy Cities – the top 20 housing markets to invest in this year – and Florida dominates the list.
According to Forbes, Florida offers good values “where investors get the best bang for their housing buck, and where aspiring homeowners have the best prospects of making an economically sound purchase.”
Orlando took second place and was followed by six other Sunshine State cities. Among them, average home prices are highest in West Palm Beach (No. 19) at $285,000 and lowest in Tampa (No. 14) at $193,000. The best-buy markets are:
1. Grand Rapids, Mich.
2. Orlando
3. San Antonio
4. Charlotte, N.C.
5. Salt Lake City
6. Dallas
7. Austin, Texas
8. Fort Lauderdale
9. Seattle
10. Cape Coral
11. Indianapolis
12. North Port
13. Nashville, Tenn.
14. Tampa
15. Charleston, S.C.
16. Denver
17. Madison, Wis.
18. Jacksonville
19. West Palm Beach
20. Boise, Idaho
More and more Canadians who purchased U.S. homes cheap when money exchange rates favored them are now selling to take advantage of rising U.S. house prices, a plunging loonie and strong U.S. dollar.
For investors, it’s the old standard: Buy low and sell high.
Even with added costs such as a possible capital gains tax, many Canadians still come out far ahead.
The exchange rate with the loonie is currently hovering around 71 American cents – a reversal from six years ago, when the loonie was around par with a U.S. dollar and 2011 when it equaled $1.05.
At the same time the loonie was strong, housing prices in much of the United States took a dive, triggered by the 2008 subprime mortgage meltdown and an economic boom gone bust.
Canadians, from snowbirds to investors, eagerly swooped into hot spots such as Arizona and Florida to buy a piece of sunny real estate at a low-low price. Canadian sales more than doubled from March 2011 to 2012.
In Florida, Realtor Brent Leathwood is among those agents seeing a surge of Canadians cashing out.
When the loonie was stronger from 2009 to 2013, nearly all of his Canadian clients were buyers.
Today, he says, almost 80 percent of them want to sell their residences.