More Canadian snowbirds are returning home this spring with some extra paperwork - deeds to Treasure Coast real estate.

The combination of a strong exchange rate on the Canadian dollar and bargain real estate prices has led many Canadians who have been shopping around to buy Florida property, said Alain Forget, the Florida-based director of the Cross Border Segment for RBC Bank, a subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Canada that has 10 branches on the Treasure Coast.

Realtor Therese Lavoie of Re/Max Realty Services in Port St. Lucie is a Quebec native who has sold real estate in Port St. Lucie for 31 years. Lavoie estimates Canadians' real estate purchases are up about 30 percent this year.

Forget said he's seen about a 35 percent increase in mortgages by Canadians for Florida properties.

"Young Baby Boomers are recently retired or in their 50s have been buying in Florida's soft real estate market rather than just renting for a couple of weeks' vacation,” Forget said. "These younger Canadians, who are purchasing properties as investment real estate and personal vacations, are in addition to the longtime stream of Canadian buyers of traditional second homes in Florida.”

Although Canadians also are buying in Hollywood and Boynton Beach, Lavoie said, many like Port St. Lucie because "it's a quiet, nice little town.”

While most are buying houses and condominiums, British Columbia resident Jean-Pierre Martel and his brother Bernard, who lives in Quebec, have bought four vacant lots in developed Port St. Lucie neighborhoods with the help of Realtor Linda Jeffrey, a certified transnational agent with Real Living All Florida Realty in Port St. Lucie.

The brothers are returning to Canada this week after a two-week visit with their sister, who has lived year-round in West Palm Beach for a decade.

Jean-Pierre Martel, a medical lab technologist, said they bought the lots as long-term investments, though he and his brother might eventually each build on one.

Martel said they have been looking for four or five years, "but we postponed our buying because real estate was too expensive.”

Not anymore, though.

He said he took money out of his stock portfolio to buy the lots "because real estate is cheap right now, especially in Port St. Lucie.” He said he and his brother paid one-fourth to half of the $80,000 to $90,000 lots were listed for five years ago.

"Young Boomers are buying now even though retirement is still a few years off because in five years or so it might be way different than it is now,” Forget said.

Orest and Sabine Harasowsky of Caledon East, Ontario, north of Toronto, are an example.

In January, the Harasowskys bought a two-bedroom condominium in Portofino in Jensen Beach though they had not been in Florida since last May.

Orest Harasowsky, production manager for a vehicle fleet customizer, said in a phone interview they usually vacationed in Fort Lauderdale, and sometimes on Florida's Gulf Coast. But when they began looking to buy a year ago, prices there were too steep. And the Canadian dollar was worth 78 cents U.S.

After looking further north along Florida's east coast, they connected with Realtor Debbie Redditt of Prudential Florida Realty in Palm City.

Harasowsky said Redditt gave them a two-day "crash tour” of Martin County, during which he and his wife decided they liked the area.

"We're quite pleased,” he said. "It's slightly more attractive than what you see in Fort Lauderdale without the skyscrapers.”

Without returning to Florida this season, they bought the condo in Portofino for $85,000, while the Canadian dollar was fetching 95 cents U.S. Since then, it has hovered around even.

The seller, also Canadian, had paid $120,000 a year earlier for the 8-year-old unit, which sold during a condo conversion on 2005 for $229,000.

Harasowsky figures between the improved exchange rate and declining prices they saved about $20,000 by waiting until this spring.

In 2008, about 2.7 million Canadians visited Florida, with about a half-million staying for one to six months, an economic impact study prepared in December 2008 for the Consulate General of Canada in Miami found.

Few stay longer than six months because Canadians lose their national health insurance if they are outside their country for longer than that.