Hey Shaun,
Thanks for your post; good luck with your search!
One other thing that they're not making anymore of is "Waterfront!"
The waterfront markets have continued to grow strong, even back in the slower years.
Shuswap, BC Waterfront Property
One challenge with it though is the history is always scary..... you look around and get your bearings, then decide to go ahead and purchase; but low and behold, the prices just went up by six figures! So you back down, look around again, and they just keep going up. By the time you decide to buy, 3 years have gone by........ happens all the time; I've been in that market for many years.
In BC, waterfront has skyrocketed in the Kelowna area; we're a few years behind in the Shuswap area, with our prices being about half of Kelowna and we're one hour North. The Kootenays are offering/developing some nice waterfront developments too; and the market there isn't as high.
Also Invermere/Radium area offers a backyard playground for Calgarians and the prices are really reasonable. I think you'd be safe in any area for waterfront other than Vancouver or Kelowna.
I'd also agree with the Maritimes as an investment area; prices are really affordable; my oldest daughter just bailed out of Calgary for big bucks and moved to Saint John, NB. They bought a waterfront home on 1 acre and paid cash for it.
Daughters Property in Saint John, NB
Alot of my investor clients are looking South to the States right now to make investments; the market is falling in some of the areas that Canadian snow birds like to travel to. US travel will be very popular for Canadians with the strong dollar.
Myself, I want to pay prices that are 10 years old; so I'm looking/investing in 'bedroom communities' of already high priced regions and doing well with that. I cashed out of my waterfront investments over the past couple years with exception of two personal properties and two investment properties that are currently being built.
As for the economy; Albertans were flocking here with ridiculous amounts of money; stroking cheques for anything and everything; screwed up our market in a short period of time (interior of BC). Then about a month ago the Feds announced a tax grab strategy which basically turned off the tap. Upto 17% more tax depending on profits. Things are up in the air with the revisions and the Albertans have held back. My real estate company did about 150 sales this year upto Sept/07 and in October only processed 2. However, there will be no stopping it; there are contracts in place in Alberta for the next 5 to 10 years that will be producing some huge profits; and we're expecting things to carry on rising in the Spring/08.
Do some searching around the internet; let us know which areas might appeal to you and we'll give you some more feedback.
Here are some sites you can check out:
Real Estate Service:
www.mls.ca
Waterfront Developer:
http://www.newfuturebuilding.com/home.html
Invermere Developer:
http://www.castlerockinvermere.com/home/index.php
Shuswap Developer:
www.labaiabeach.com (will be live next week)
Kootenay Lake:
http://www.kootenaylakevillage.com
My site:
www.robmckibbon.com
(some affiliation with links)