American investors should consider looking north of the border for their next real estate investment. While US home prices have been declining in most major cities for the past year, prices in Canada have been on the rise – in some cities on a steep rise.

Many Western Canadian cities such as Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and Saskatoon have been enjoying high single-digit or even double-digit increases in home prices over the past few years. There appears to be no slowdown in sight. Major western Canadian cities such as Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon and other small cities are predicted to experience housing price growth of 5 percent to 10 percent over the coming year.

With the US Fed giving in to economic and political pressures to lower interest rates the US dollar is predicted to continue its decline relative to world currencies. A safe haven for US investors may be to hold Canadian real estate which will obviously be denominated in Canadian dollars. As such, American investors would be insulated from declines in the greenback and in fact profit as the greenback slides.

From an economic perspective it would seem wise for American investors to invest in Vancouver and other western Canadian real estate to take advantage of soaring house prices which have not yet peaked and of the rising Canadian dollar.