A steal of a deal

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‘It’s just crazy. I never in my wildest dreams thought it would be this busy’ — Diane Olson, ex-Winnipeg cop who sells real estate in Phoenix (CNS)

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Example One -- This four-bedroom, 1,900-sq.-ft. home that was valued at $300,000 in 2005 recently sold for $117,500. (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

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Example Two -- This four-bedroom, 2,700-sq.-ft house that was valued at $535,000 in 2006 sold recently for $225,000. (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

WINNIPEG — Bargain-hunting Manitobans are snapping up U.S. vacation homes at a fevered pitch, with one Phoenix realtor doing seven such deals last week alone.

"It's just crazy," Diane Olson, an ex-Winnipeg cop who sells real estate in the Arizona city, said in an interview Wednesday. "I never in my wildest dreams thought it would be this busy."

And Phoenix isn't the only U.S. hot spot where Manitobans are snagging vacation properties at drastically reduced prices. The cost of vacation properties has plummeted in the wake of the U.S. subprime mortgage and housing market crisis.

A Winnipeg woman and four other family members recently pooled their resources and bought a condominium in Florida for about a third less than similar units were selling for two or three years ago.

And Winnipeg real estate agent Walter Boni, who bought a condo in Las Vegas 18 months ago, said he knows of at least four clients or friends who are also looking to buy in the desert city.

One of the Winnipeggers who recently bought a condo through Olson -- John Heppenstall, owner of Hep Communications -- said he's so thrilled with the deal he got, he's thinking of doing another.

"Why not?" Heppenstall said. "I've been on the sidelines a lot and saying 'I should have done that.' So this time I talked to my wife and we decided let's do it. And the best-case scenario happened."

He said they picked up a two-bedroom condo in an upscale Phoenix neighbourhood for $91,000 that had sold for $224,000 just two and a half years ago.

And since it will be a couple of years before his family can use it as a vacation home, they're renting it out and have a Phoenix property management firm looking after it for them, he said.

Olson, a real estate agent with HomeSmart, said she's lost track of how many properties she's sold to Manitoba buyers since hosting several seminars in Winnipeg last year.

"I've done a countless number. A lot of sales," she said.

She said last week was an especially busy one. She usually averages one sale a week to a Manitoban.

She said even when the Canadian dollar sank below 80 cents U.S. earlier this year, Manitobans kept on buying. And now that's it's back up above 90 cents, they're even more hot to trot.

A spokesman for the family that bought the condo in Florida said the dollar's recent revival is great, but that's not why they bought.

Chad Wilton, 27, who grew up in Winnipeg but now lives in Ottawa, said he flies his own plane and was looking for a vacation property in a Florida community that has its own airstrip.

They found a townhouse in a gated community near Daytona Beach with a private airstrip and a price that was too good to pass up -- $130,000 for a two-bedroom that was worth nearly $200,000 just two or three years ago.

"We also wanted a place the whole family could enjoy," he said, and their condo is close to the beach and to Disney World.

Boni said one of the things he likes about Las Vegas is there's always something to do in the city that never sleeps.

Although he wouldn't say what they paid for their two-bedroom condo, he did say "it was good."

He said they try to get down there four or five times a year, usually for a week at a time.

"We really, really enjoy it," he said.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca

Bargains in the desert

Here are two examples of some of recent deals in the Phoenix area:

Example One -- This four-bedroom, 1,900-sq.-ft. home that was valued at $300,000 in 2005 recently sold for $117,500.

Example Two -- This four-bedroom, 2,700-sq.-ft house that was valued at $535,000 in 2006 sold recently for $225,000.

Two more examples, this time of Phoenix properties that were purchased by Winnipeg buyers:

Example One -- A three-bedroom, two-bathroom condominium that sold for $320,000 in 2007 and was purchased recently for $117,900.

Example Two -- A four-bedroom, 2,457-sq.-ft, two-storey house that was valued at $304,000 in 2006 and sold recently for $116,500

-- Source: Diane Olson, HomeSmart in Phoenix

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 4, 2009 B5