Move over Canada, Chinese buyers waiting.

Canadians, mostly seeking relief from cold winters, used to be the number foreign buyers of American properties, and that since 2008.

The low Canadian dollar has meant not only that fewer Canadians are buying US properties, but that some Canadian “snowbirds” are selling their US homes.

The latest report by the U.S. National Association of Realtors says that Chinese buyers have moved into top spot both in numbers of sales to foreigners and dollar amount. Canadians are now second with a 14 percent share of international sales and a value of  US $11.2 billion. Chinese buyers bought a 16 percent share, and at the higher end of properties worth almost $29 billion. Compared to all other international buyers, the average sale price to Chinese is almost double that of all others at over $831,000 compared to $499,000.

While Canada is low on statistics, there is a widespread feeling that buyers and investors from China are also buying up properties in Canada and causing house prices to skyrocket, especially in major cities like Vancouver and surrounding region, and Toronto.

The Macdonald Real Estate group in Vancouver caused a stir in 2014 when they reported that data from their client base showed over 33% of all single-family home sales in the Vancouver area could be traced to China.

While Americans already own many vacation properties in Canada, realtors are saying that with the Canadian dollar relatively low, vacation properties in Canada especially at the higher end, are proving attractive to Americans, and others.

Quoted in the Huffington Post Business news John Jarvis, a ReMax agent in Ontario’s Muskoka region, where property values can be in the millions says,  “In all of my offices we’re seeing more U.S. inquiries. Americans are definitely shopping more than they have been in the last three or four years.”

Meanwhile, average home prices in Canada continue to rise causing consternation for many Canadians who are seeking to buy their first home.

In April of this year the average Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) was $439,144. That average is up 9.4 per cent from March 2014