I found this article on the web this morning and was surprised to see Palm Creek in the Canadian newspaper. You can click on the link to read the full article (which is rather lengthy) but I copied the meaty stuff below.
Snowbirds are flocking to the warmth of Arizona in ever-increasing numbers, anxious to find themselves a bargain-priced winter nest.
The Valley of the Sun, with Greater Phoenix as its hub, has always been a popular seasonal retreat for Canadians wanting to escape the vagaries of winter, but the high Canadian dollar coupled with generally depressed U.S. housing markets has hatched another wave of buyers.
Armed with the required documentation from their lenders, Canadians are snapping up properties that in some instances are priced at 50 per cent of their 2005 peak.
Kevin Craig, who works out of the Scottsdale office of Keller Williams Realty, also works with a Calgary company called CanAm Properties LLC (canamproperties.ca), headed up by Calgary realtor Tom Burk. He says CanAm works specifically with Canadians who are looking to enter the U.S. real estate market either for investment, second homes, or primary residences.
According to Phoenix-area housing industry data, Canadians are now the most active out-of-state real estate purchasers, displacing Californians.
Brown says Canadians ``have been responding to better values'' in the market driven by what economists call distressed properties - either foreclosures or short sales.
While resale activity dominates the housing industry, many Canadians want a newly built home.
Jeff Blandford, president of Blandford Homes which builds in various areas of the valley, says he has seen a lot of Canadian home-buying activity.
``We've had a big influx of Canadians in the last two years, but this year they came earlier and are going home later,'' he says in an Arizona Republic interview. ``And a growing number are coming back to buy a new home. It's a very nice thing that's happened to our industry.''
There is another snowbird housing segment that has shown healthy growth - the RV and mobile home sector.
With more than 44,000 recreational vehicle spaces, Mesa has one of the state's highest concentrations of snowbird vacation sites. A recent article in the Republic reported that 98 per cent of Towerpoint Resort's spaces were filled.
Another, Palm Creek Golf and RV Resort in Casa Grande, had its 1,862 sites fully booked for as long as six weeks.
Palm Creek general manager Wendell Johnson estimates Canadians made up about 35 per cent of the resort's visitors this past winter.
``We've noticed that more of them are coming from Eastern Canada, rather than going to Florida where they traditionally went,'' he says in a Republic interview.
Calgary Herald
Thank you Tom and Kathy Frania for forwarding me this fun entertaining dance video. I’m inserting it here for everyone to enjoy.
GERIATRIC DIRTY DANCING.....
