There’s an old joke that says Canadians have been coming to vacation in Phoenix since the invention of air conditioning. In reality, the Canadian tourism boom began in the early 2000s. Many of these vacationers came from Alberta, looking for a nearby respite from the freezing prairie winters. I was working in Calgary real estate in 2008 when the American housing market crashed and the U.S. dollar took a nosedive, which suddenly made houses in Phoenix reasonably affordable for Canadians. I was a dual Canadian and American citizen, and it seemed like a perfect time for me to reinvent my real estate career to cater to Canadian vacationers. Calgary’s real estate market has always been boom or bust, depending on the oil and gas sector. I wanted something more stable. So I relocated to the Greater Phoenix Area, where my wife, Carol, soon joined me. I’m in Arizona most of the year to help Canadian snowbirds and investors shop for property in the area, while Carol looks after our clients in Alberta.

In the years I’ve been in Phoenix, the market has only ever surged as more and more snowbirds came shopping for a winter roost. Before the pandemic, nearly a million Canadians were visiting Arizona every year, filling up restaurants, hotels and golf courses and supporting a booming local tourism industry. In 2022, it generated almost 180,000 jobs, plus 120,000 more in related industries like restaurants and supply stores. Canadians return to the same places year after year. Many of my closest friends in Phoenix are still Canadians who come up each winter; I helped many of them buy their homes here. There are over 100,000 Canadians with short- or long-term residences in Arizona—we make up the largest share of the state’s international property owners. Every January for the last decade and a half, like clockwork, I’ve had a steady stream of Canadians contacting me, all looking to buy in the Greater Phoenix Area.

This year, I’m busier than ever, but for the first time it’s not with buyers. Now, the majority of my clients are Canadians selling their........

© Macleans