Looking South for Investment?

Below is the text of a letter I received from a colleague in Arizona regarding investment possibilities in that state.

Dear Frank,

I am a fellow RE/MAX Associate and I am contacting you regarding possible opportunities for referrals of your clients who would like to consider investments in the Phoenix, Arizona area, including Scottsdale, a favorite area for "snow birds". Historically, many Canadians have called Arizona home for the chillier seasons of the year and we welcome their seasonal migration. In recent months, we have also witnessed an increased interest to purchase properties within our city from north of the border due to the favorable currency exchange.

If you have any doubt that now may be the BEST time for your clients to consider purchasing a winter home in Arizona, let me share some interesting facts. According to the Department of Real Estate at the Arizona State University, the median price of a Scottsdale resale residential property for the 1st quarter 2007 was $595,000 USD, and for the 1st quarter 2008 it was $525,000 USD. When you consider the current "soft" real estate market, coupled with a shift of Canadian Dollar exchange rates, I think you will agree that purchase opportunities for US properties are near record discounted values for your clients. I estimate that the savings to Canadians in this example to be almost twenty percent in Canadian Dollars. How much longer will this situation last? Current exchange rate and trend line:

Yahoo Finance Currency Converter and Trend Line:

http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?from=USD&to=CAD&amt=1&t=3m

We are now seeing evidence of a stabilizing, if not slowly improving, real estate situation in selective pockets of the Greater Phoenix Metro Area. Overall Maricopa County MLS unit sales (covering mostly Phoenix Metro) were up 27% from February '08, to March '08, and another 14% for the month of April topping our 6-month trend.

These links lead to examples of affordable "second" homes:
Scottsdale $850,000 example:
http://www.larkspurdrive.com
Phoenix Market $250,000 example:
http://www.estatequicksale.com