Real Estate Blog

Written by Fred Hintenberger, P.A. exclusively for MyEhomes.com

Foreign buyers are the bright spot in this gloomy market. There has recently been an influx of foreign investors and second home owners. I have experience this first hand and I have also notice an increase in the numbers of inquires by foreign buyers. Why are they buying? The main reason is because the dollar is at recent historic lows. The relativity weak dollar has been loosing ground to all of the other major currencies and when you combine that with falling home prices, you get lots of interested international buyers that want to take advantage of these opportunities. If you are a foreign buyer it's like buying a home for half price of what comparable homes were selling for in 2005. What are they buying? Foreign investors seem to be grabbing up mostly condos on the beaches or in major downtown areas of Florida. The majority of the purchases are between $150,000-$300,000. Most of the foreign buyers are coming from Europe with Bitain leading the way. The second largest group of buyers are coming from Asia, followed by Canada, than Mexico and South America.This is good for our real estate market and our local government because it generates some of the of the much needed revenue created by tax dollars from foreign tourist, it helps stop the bleeding, and it will be one of the factors that will help stabilize our property values. So be friendly and show some southern hospitality to our foreign tourist. Give them only positives things to share when they go back home. You never know, their neighbors and friends might end up being your neighbors and friends.

Posted by Fred Hintenberger