How many Canadian Snowbirds are there?
They wife and I were talking about the Canadian snowbirds situation today and how it will affect AZ, RGV and FL. Is there any accurate information about the number of Canadians that come south for the...
Forum Discussion
FULLTIMEWANABE wrote:JaxDad wrote:
According to the Canadian Trade Commissioner's office Canadians pay north of $500,000,000 a year just in property taxes in the State of Florida alone.
As for non property owning snowbirds, it goes on to say "Canadian tourists spent an estimated $6.5 billion in 2016 alone. Canadian tourism has generated an estimated $686.5 million in related tax revenue..."
And therein lies the reason why we sold our place in Florida in 2017. Taxes escalated exponentially but not for others. Neighbour with Homesteading and a pool paying $3600 and we were well north of $12000 a year with no pool, similar valuation. In 2008 USA were crying out for our Canadian dollars and within 5 years after that everything went exponentially up specially on "us". Flood insurance as non-residents, house insurance as non-residents and so on and so forth. Basically the goal posts moved exponentially on many counts after the credit crunch recovery to the detriment of non-resident owners when it suited. To each their own but we personally will never own property again in the USA because of how badly we were treated after the fact on moving goal posts, not just cost of living wise either!
PS: Note to Alberta plated car stored in garage = maybe in danger of being reported especially in today's environment. If ascertained kept down there longer than 3 months (mandate in most states!) could be in for huge taxes as should have been imported and changed out to local plates. Just saying BarbOK, and don't know state by state rules but ........ you might want to let them know as a favour that over a certain time a vehicle remains in a country has to be exempted or imported = usually the latter.
I can't speak specifically about Florida's property taxes since I have never owned property in that state. However, I don't believe any state in the US makes foreign real estate owners pay a higher property tax simply because they are foreigners. Some states and/or local tax authorities do have slightly higher tax rates for properties used as a second home or income property. What is correct it can be difficult and/or very expensive to get insurance on homes that aren't occupied full time, regardless of the owner's nationality.
