Great time for Canadians to buy U.S. golf property, eh

        Canadian real estate prices reached record levels in 2009, and new home starts were up in December to their highest level in 14 months, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal today.  Folks who couldn’t get a nibble on their condo a year ago are today finding fevered buyers bidding against each other.

        All this positive momentum is starting to prompt fears of a bubble and

We have some ideas for Canadians who are profiting from increasing home prices -- buy golf community property in the U.S. consequent price busts in Canada’s housing market.  (Those of us who own homes south of the Canadian border know the scenario all too well.)  Such fears are prompting some Canadians to pocket their home-sale profits and rent instead.  I have a better idea for them, especially if they play golf; buy a nice, cheap vacation home in Myrtle Beach or some other vacation spot we know you love.

        Myrtle Beach has long been a favorite play spot for Canadian golfers, and they are welcomed in Myrtle Beach like no other group.  Hotels and

restaurants in Myrtle Beach fly the Canadian flag outside their establishments in February and March when the winter-addled and golf starved from Toronto and elsewhere are more than happy to don a heavy sweater and hit the links.  The Canadian influx is one reason why March is considered "high-season" in Myrtle Beach.  It is also when Myrtle Beach hosts Can-Am Days which celebrates the bonds between the two nations -- and the love locally of the Canadian dollar -- with a series of events, including a golf tournament that pits some of Canada’s best junior golfers against some pretty good ones from South Carolina.  This year, local Myrtle Beach real estate agents will be missing a great opportunity if they aren’t crawling all over the Can-Am venues, handing out their business cards and flyers of ridiculously low-priced golf community properties.

        Except for a few rare days of snow or ice, golf is year round in Myrtle Beach.  To all you Canadians who might consider a relocation to the area, think about this for an early February morning with a likely foot of snow on the ground in Toronto:  You could play Caledonia Golf Club in the morning and then take a leisurely one-hour drive to the great city of Charleston to watch the East Coast Hockey League champion Sting Rays play.  Golf in the morning, and hockey in the evening: Try that in Toronto in February.