Matt Chilliak

Berlin: Germany’s Vibrant City Full Of Affordable Real Estate

City Properties, Featured / By Matt Chilliak

view of berlin from an apartment balcony

Investing In Europe’s Economic Powerhouse

Germany doesn’t get nearly enough credit. Its efficient economy is the powerhouse of the Continent, and its standard of living one of the highest in the entire world. Universal health care, free college, respect for individual rights, plenty of jobs, affordable housing—Germany seems to have it figured out.

The city of Berlin is an example of how tearing down walls rather than erecting new ones can spur rapid economic growth. Since tearing down the Berlin Wall that divided the city from the end of World War II until 1989, the city has gone on to become a leader in the borderless EU. And with the United States and U.K. withdrawing from the world stage, Germany is quickly emerging as the leader of the free world.

Cities like London, Paris, and Barcelona receive more than their fair share of attention when it comes to the top spots for urban living in Europe. But Germany’s capital city, Berlin, is a world-class city like no other. And, when comparing Berlin to other world cities, there’s one aspect that makes it especially appealing: …

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Canada’s Maritime Region Offers A Tranquil Seaside Escape

Leave a Comment / Beach Front Properties, Featured, Property Regions, Property Types / By Matt Chilliak

Look To The Maritimes For Canada’s Best Real Estate Buys

It started as a joke, people fleeing the United States after the election. But after putting up the website “Cape Breton If Donald Trump Wins,” creator Rob Calabrese saw more than a million visitors to the site within the first few weeks.

Then after the election, Canada’s immigration website crashed, as potential “refugees” investigated actually moving to Canada.

Thousands of people wrote to Calabrese personally, asking how they could relocate to Cape Breton.

Oddly, these people included a lot of Trump supporters.

Why?

Because houses on Cape Breton, and in all of Canada’s Maritime provinces, are a great deal for interested buyers… especially those with U.S. dollars. And, like the president himself, everyone likes a great deal. …

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Ottawa: Canada’s Strong, Steady, and Stable Housing Market

Leave a Comment / Featured, Property Regions / By Matt Chilliak

By this point, the hype should have died down. This far after the U.S. election, people should be moving on with their lives rather than talking about moving out of the country.

It happens after every U.S. election cycle: One side wins, and a select few from the losing side say they’re moving to Canada.

This phenomenon knows no political stripes. Even unhappy Republicans declared they were moving to Canada to protest Obama’s 2012 re election… a country with gay marriages, gun controls, socialists, pot-smokers, and immigrants—all of the things they wanted to escape in the United States.

In reality, the odds of people actually moving this time around probably aren’t much higher than in the past; however, nothing is so sure these days. In fact, a recent report from …

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Why Montréal’s Property Market Is More Attractive Than Ever

Leave a Comment / Featured / By Matt Chilliak

Montréal—Canada’s Last Affordable Big-City Housing Market

For anyone seeking political refuge in the Great White North, the timing couldn’t be better. The exchange rate between the U.S. and Canadian dollars makes Canadian markets a bargain for U.S. dollar holders. Among the various markets across Canada’s provinces and cities, the most unique and most promising is Montréal.

The city’s Canadian, Québécois, American, and Indigenous cultures make it unlike any other city in the Americas. Old Montréal’s 17th- and 18th-century architecture accompanied by the French chatter on the streets echoes of Europe, while the throngs of university students from around the world remind one that this is a modern, multicultural city.

Montréal brings Europe to North America at affordable prices.

Avoid That Canadian Housing Bubble

Prospective buyers may notice a worrisome trend in the Canadian market. For years now, ever since the disastrous crash in the U.S. housing market, analysts have been warning that a similar crash in Canada looms. Ignoring these warnings, the markets in Toronto and Vancouver continue to …

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Canadian Property Markets: An American Investor’s Best Buddy

Leave a Comment / City Properties, Featured, Property Regions, Property Types / By Matt Chilliak

Now Is The Time To Buy Canadian

It was an ongoing joke throughout the presidential campaign: Americans wanting to escape the toxic political situation and move to Canada. Cape Breton, a small town on Canada’s east coast, even based an advertising campaign on it with instant viral success.

Then, for many, it stopped being a joke when they woke up Nov. 9.

Google Trends showed a massive spike in searches for “how to move to Canada” and related queries following the election results. So many people visited the Canadian Immigration website that it crashed, and this wasn’t the first time in this election cycle that this happened. The page also crashed after March’s Super Tuesday primary results.

Whether the election results produce any significant increase in U.S. immigration to Canada will take time to be seen. Already, many of the celebrities who had previously threatened leaving have fessed up that they didn’t actually mean it.

The “True North” Remains Strong And Free

The idea of escaping the United States to the Great White North is nothing new. Loyalists fleeing during the U.S. Revolutionary War, escaped slaves joining them via the Underground Railway, and war resisters crossing the border during the Vietnam War—Canada has provided a beacon of freedom for hundreds of thousands of Americans over the years. And it still does today.

More recently, the impetus for moving to Canada became more political. Much like it has this year, after President Bush’s reelection in 2004, Canada’s immigration website saw six times its average traffic. By …

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Calidonia Attracting Long-Term Property Investment In Panama

Caribbean & Central America, Featured / By Matt Chilliak

Aerial View of Panama City, on the Calidonia area.

Plus: More On Your Own Coffee Farm

Mexico, Canada, And The United States Set To Become One Country?
Finding A Property Manager

Undervalued property in central Panama City is hard to find these days. From the oceanfront skyscrapers to the historic old town’s rehabilitated colonial structures—there isn’t much left for bargain hunters in this booming city.With GDP growth rates reaching double digits several times in the past decade, Panama’s economy—and its property market—remained relatively unscathed during the global recession. And with sustained GDP growth rates of about 6% expected through at least 2020, it comes as no surprise that Panama City’s property market continues to experience high demand.

It also comes as no surprise that many of these high-demand properties are selling for US$3,000 per square meter and higher. The old town of Casco Viejo, which is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is in especially high demand, with prices as high as US$5,000 per square meter. Apparently, you just can’t build centuries-old colonial buildings like you can …

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How To Play The Declining Canadian Dollar

Leave a Comment / Featured, Investing Fundamentals / By Matt Chilliak

Plus: Best Place For Golf And Renovating A Property

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past several months, you’re probably aware that the U.S. dollar is doing quite well. This has caused overseas property buyers to spring into action, seeking currency bargains in places like Colombia, Chile, Europe, and Mexico.

But what you may not aware of is that the Canadian dollar is struggling… not only to keep up with its southern counterpart, but to even stay afloat in relation to other currencies around the world.

The U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the U.S. dollar versus other major global currencies (the euro, Japanese yen, U.K. pound sterling, Canadian dollar, Swedish krona, and Swiss franc, in order of weighting in the index) has shot up about 20% in the past 12 months, reaching a height not seen in more than 10 years.

Against other select currencies, such as the Colombian peso, the U.S. dollar has gained more than 50% in that time. Obviously, this is great news for U.S. dollar holders.

Meanwhile, in the past 12 months, the Canadian dollar has dropped against the U.S. dollar to an 11-year low, with US$1 now worth about CAN$1.33. That’s an almost 25% gain for U.S. dollar holders since one year ago.

…

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