Canadians buying too many homes in the U.S.

I have numerous acquaintances who have purchased a holiday home in Arizona over the past three years, and I’m always hearing about the cheap houses there. If the purchases made by Calgarians were added to our MLS sales totals, the number would far surpass the record sales we experienced in 2005 – 2007.

Now there’s concern about Canadians pushing up the prices and making it difficult for Americans to buy homes, condemning them to become permanent renters. “Your average working family, at least where I live, is not able to buy a home,” Democratic Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez recently lamented during Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s latest testimony. “Cash offers, from in particular foreign markets, are wiping them off,” she said.

Read more: Canadian home buyers: from saviors to carpetbaggers