Bouyed by a strong currency exchange, high fuel costs and a drop in home prices, Canadians have overtaken the Japanese as the number one international buyers of Hawaii residential real estate. Historically, Japanese buyers have dominated international home sales in Hawaii, focusing mostly on Oahu.

But in 2010, buyers from Canada purchased a total of 425 homes in Hawaii, representing 48% of all sales to non-U.S. buyers. In contrast, buyers from Japan purchased just 245 properties or 27 percent of the properties sold to non-U.S. buyers, mostly in the Waikiki area. Unlike the Japanese, Canadians focused their purchases on the island of Maui, snapping up 240 Maui properties last year, the most of any international group and 12 percent of the total number of residential sales on the island for 2010.

Canada's economy has largely escaped much of the downturn experienced in the United States. The combination of the strong Canadian dollar, a healthy real estate market and rising oil prices have resulted in a record number of qualified buyers, particularly from oil-rich Western Canada.

Canadians have always displayed a fondness for Maui, and have now discovered the Big Island, where condominium prices are as much as 70 percent lower than they were just a few years ago. Canadians who have been regular visitors to Hawaii can't help but notice of the affordability of residential property, which has helped fuel the surge in buying activity from $92.4 million in 2004 to an impressive $320 million in 2010. Most point to China as the next big international market. But with only 11 residential sales in 2010, that prediction has yet to come true.