Foreign home buyers have their eye on U.S. vacation areas — especially in southern Florida — and are helping to give a lift to some of these battered housing markets.
More than 30 percent of Florida’s home sales in the 12 months ending in March were to foreign buyers (compared to 10 percent in 2007), according to National Association of REALTORS® housing data. In Miami alone, about 40 percent of buyers are international, says Ronald Shuffield, president of Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell REALTORS® in Coral Gables, Fla.
“International buyers have been the fuel for the Miami recovery," Shuffield told the USA Today.
Three of the most popular areas foreigners are searching for real estate: Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Phoenix, and Los Angeles, according to Trulia’s Web site.
And where are these foreign buyers most coming from? Canadians are mostly dominating the market share, with 23 percent of the foreign buyers coming from that country, followed by 9 percent from China, according to NAR data.
Source: “Foreign Buyers Lifting U.S. Home Sales,” USA Today (July 6, 2011)
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