Word on the street is up to 20% of the members of the Phoenix Association of REALTORS did not renew their membership by yesterday’s deadline.

There’s a degree of procrastination to be sure as some just missed the deadline. But if that figure’s even close to accurate, that’s one hellacious drop in just a year’s time.

For those who don’t know, PAR is one of a handful of local associations serving the Phoenix metro area. Others are the Scottsdale, West Maricopa and Southeast Valley associations of REALTORS.

Overall, with 40,000 members the Arizona Regional MLS is one of the five or six largest multiple listing services in the nation. And to think, less than .1% of us have blogs.

Either we’re early adopters or we have too much time on our hands. I vote for the former.

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One of the best things about Radio Margaritaville is the chance to emerge from the significant musical rock I’ve lived under, even if I didn’t know I was living under it at the time.

I knew this song from the Grosse Pointe Blank soundtrack; sadly didn’t know about Toots and the Maytals until Sirius satellite and Margaritaville came along. Oh, what I didn’t realize I was missing.

Video’s not great but that’s the case more often than not on YouTube these days.

Enjoy your Friday. It’s 5 o’clock somewhere … even at half past 12.

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Yesterday I was in my title company of choice talking to the account executive and another escrow office when the topic of Canadians buying real estate here in the states, particularly Arizona, came up.

“The Canadian dollar’s still killing ours,” one of them said.

“Not really,” I replied, pointing them to this site and the nifty widget to the left. This is the second time in a week where I’ve seen the Canadian dollar slip ever-so-slightly below the U.S. dollar. It’s only a difference of a penny one way or the other and in general the idea of parity (or a penny below) beats the $1.20 of mid-2007 (not to mention the $1.40 from the 1980s another Canadian buyer mentioned last week.)

Many Canadian buyers are sitting on the fence at the moment, trying to decide whether the Phoenix real estate market will move lower over the next several months. But the fence on which they are sitting is shifting, and with each shift away from parity the real cost of buying here in the States rises.

This isn’t one of those “it’s a great time to buy” stump speeches NAR foists upon us. But I do encourage you, if you’re serious about buying here in Arizona, to keep a close eye on the exchange rates. Because the changes there could be more rapid and more costly than any change in the property values here in the Valley.

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Didn’t I just say this?

So I guess it’s not just in my head. Especially as I continue to peruse the rental listings clogged with $1,000 or $1,500 a night rentals.

Soon the game will be gone and reality will set in. Again.

(h/t to John Wake at the Arizona Real Estate Notebook)

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