Ontario residents have big presence in global homebuying hot spots
Homebuyers from Ontario -- Canada's wealthiest and most populous province -- were among the most active in 10 U.S. real estate markets identified as international hot spots in an Inman News report released this month.
Inman News explores the 10 most popular areas in the U.S. for foreign homebuyers, based on public records of foreign buyers who cite a non-U.S. address. Six of the 10 market areas are in Florida, while the remaining four are in Arizona, New York, Hawaii and Nevada.
The 10 markets, ranked by highest share of foreign buyers who used a non-U.S. home address, according to public records data complied by DataQuick, are:
1. Lakeland-Winter Haven, Fla.
2. Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla.
3. Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Fla.
4. North Point-Bradenton-Sarasota, Fla.
5. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, Fla.
6. Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, Ariz.
7. New York County, N.Y. (Manhattan)
8. Honolulu, Hawaii.
9. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla.
10. Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev.
In eight out of 10 areas, Canada was the leading home country during that time, accounting for between 41.7 percent of foreign buyers in Lakeland-Winter Haven and 90.2 percent in Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale.
Share of Canadians among global homebuyers in 10 U.S. markets
| Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, Ariz. | 90.2% |
| North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, Fla. | 77.2% |
| Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev. | 73.0% |
| Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla. | 72.3% |
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, Fla. | 70.5% |
| Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla. | 67.4% |
| Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Fla. | 46.1% |
| Lakeland-Winter Haven, Fla. | 41.7% |
| Honolulu | 16.3% |
| New York County (Manhattan), N.Y. | 8.1% |
Ontario ranked No. 1 among all Canadian provinces for home-purchase activity in six of 10 markets in the report, and Ontario also ranked in the top three among Canadian provinces for buying activity in the other four U.S. markets identified in the report. Quebec ranked first among Canadian provinces for its share of homebuyers in the Miami market area, and ranked second in market share among Canadian provinces in five of the 10 U.S. markets, fourth in one market, and sixth in two other markets.
While Ontario and Quebec are the most populous provinces in Canada, they are proportionally overrepresented in the six Florida metros featured in the report.
While they make up about 38 percent and 24 percent, respectively, of the overall Canadian population, about 56 percent of more than 6,500 Canadian buyers in those metros combined came from Ontario between May 2011 and January 2012, while just over a third (34 percent), came from Quebec. Every other Canadian province or territory accounted for 2 percent or less of Canadian buyers in that time period.
Ontario is home to Canada's capital, Ottawa, and is the wealthiest of Canada's provinces and territories. The province accounted for nearly 38 percent of country's gross domestic product in 2010; Quebec accounted for nearly 20 percent, according to Statistics Canada. Alberta and British Columbia followed at 16 percent and nearly 13 percent, respectively.
Alberta had the highest GDP per capita in 2010 among the provinces and territories: $70,826 (in Canadian dollars). British Columbia's per capita GDP ($44,847) was just below Ontario's, though above that of Quebec. Alberta and British Columbia also had some of the lowest unemployment rates in the country in February: 5 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively, compared to 7.4 percent at the national level. By contrast, Ontario and Quebec had jobless rates somewhat above the national level at 7.6 percent and 8.4 percent.
The share of Canadian buyers who used a Canadian home address among the total pool of global homebuyers in the 10 U.S. markets ranged from a high of 90.2 percent for the Phoenix market area to a low of about 8 percent for the Manhattan market area.
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla. (share of Canadian buyers, by province)
| Ontario | 71.3% |
| Quebec | 11.1% |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 4.9% |
| Alberta | 3.2% |
| British Columbia | 2.9% |
| Nova Scotia | 2.9% |
| Manitoba | 1.6% |
| New Brunswick | 1.2% |
| Saskatchewan | 0.7% |
| Prince Edward Island | 0.1% |
Share of overall foreign buyers from Canada in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater (May 2011-January 2012): 72.3 percent.
In contrast to the other Florida metros on this list, the Quebecois make up most of the Canadian buyers in the Miami metro area.
