You’ve probably missed the bottom of the U.S. housing market, but the question for Canadians is whether it’s too late to jump in now.

Maybe it’s the strength of the loonie, the increasing value of their principal residences or the lure of still deeply discounted housing, but Canadians love the United States — especially the Sun Belt — where we remain the No. 1 foreign buyer of property.

Prices won’t likely go lower, says Beata Caranci, deputy chief economist at Toronto-Dominion Bank. However, based on the 5% year-over-year growth that the United States has seen in average property values, they’re not returning to 2006 levels anytime soon either.

“If you were trying to get in at the very bottom, you missed it,” Ms. Caranci says. “You are still pretty darn close to skimming the bottom, and the more you wait, you can expect about 5% price growth every year.”

If you were trying to get in at the very bottom, you missed it

Just to keep things in perspective, average prices in Florida remain about 50% off their peak. She says states such as Nevada and Arizona have worked through their foreclosures, thereby removing some of the best deals.

But even with the recovery, Ms. Caranci says it will take until 2017 for Americans to recover all the real estate wealth they lost in the housing crash — based on that 5% annual increase in property values.

“That’s 11 years. It’s very much like Canada. Remember we had our real estate bust in the 1980s and it took until 1995 until prices climbed again. It was a long and extended boom-bust cycle,” she says. “You are talking about a 10-year cycle.”

Canadian activity in the U.S. is impressive in its own right, but the transaction volume is hardly enough to be the only reason behind the modest turnaround in the moribund U.S. housing market.

The latest survey from the Washington-based National Association of Realtors showed foreigners purchased US$82.5-billion in residential real estate in the 12 months before March 12, 2012. It was a significant chunk of the US$928.2-billion in total activity for the period.

Foreign purchasing, led by Canadians’ 25% share, is clearly on the rise, having been only $66.4-billion a year earlier. And the top four destinations for foreigners are the warm-weather states of Florida, California, Arizona and Texas.

Richard Levert, a 57-year-old from Sudbury, Ont., in the recruitment business who has been vacationing in Naples, Fla. since 1991, is one of those who pulled the trigger on a recent deal by upgrading his vacation home.

Internet reference - http://business.financialpost.com/2013/01/02/its-not-too-late-to-buy-cheap-property-in-the-u-s-sun-belt/