Foreigners eyeing St. Pete real estate

A recent Coffee Talk highlighted a marketing trend designed to lure Canadian visitors to Lee County. Point2 Homes, a website that lists real estate throughout the country, shows in its fourth quarter report on Web traffic that the highest traffic to the site's residential home listings came from our neighbors to the north.

Furthermore, St. Petersburg finished in the top 20 cities on the list in terms of traffic from international visits. Florida as a whole took the top spot for the same metric at the statewide level with more than 9% of international traffic focused on the Sunshine State.

The Canadian migration is a trend that is moving into commercial real estate as well. Scott Dobbins, president of St. Petersburg-based Gulf Coast Commercial LLC, which serves as a broker and consultant for retail real estate, told Coffee Talk in 2011 the number of Canadians purchasing businesses in the area is rising.

According to The Financial Forecast Center, Canada's currency is expected to get even stronger through the summer, meaning the curious net surfers may turn into actual buyers.

Depending on foreign investment to reboot Tampa's home market is foolish, but it is certainly a start — eh?