Garry Marr, National Post
The National Association of Realtors (U.S.) reported that Canadians spent US$2.2-billion on Florida real estate in 2013. This makes Canada the state's No. 1 international buyer of real estate for the seventh consecutive year.
Canadians comprised 31.6% of all international purchases in Florida. 89% of Canadians pay cash for their property purchases. Half of all Canadian buyers spent less than US$200,000. 16% of Canadians paid more than $400,000 for their Florida homes.
The UK ranked a distant second, accounting for 7% of all international purchases. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater was chosen by 12% of Canadians for purchases, followed by Naples at 11% and Fort Lauderdale at 10%. A total of 53% of Canadian buyers plan to use their Florida home as a vacation property, 14% plan to rent it out for investment purposes, 17% will do both, and only 7% purchased a home for pure retirement purposes.
There are a lot of Canadian buyers for properties in Florida, and I am one of those people. I want to buy some property in Florida because it has a lot of profit opportunities. My mate told me about this.