Overseas buyers invest $41bn in USA Property
International property investors spent $41 billion on buying homes in the USA in the year to March 2010, according to a new report out this week from the National Association of Realtors.
Overseas buyers represented 4% of the $907 billion overall US market says the NAR and if you add in newly-arrived immigrants or temporary visa holders, the total rises to $66 billion, or 7% of the total residential market.
Just over half of all these purchases were in four states: Arizona, California, Florida and Texas.
Canada leads the list of inward investors with a 23% share of the activity. Mexico provides the next biggest chunk with 10% of purchasers; the United Kingdom 9%; China (including Hong Kong) 8%; Germany combined with France 7%; and India 5%, according to the NAR survey.
Not all of the overseas property buyers get the right result though. 34% of potential buyers were unable to complete the transaction because of financing problems says NAR.
55% of the buyers in the survey paid in cash. This contrasts sharply with the 92% of normal, domestic U.S. house-buyers who financed their home purchase in 2009 via a mortgage.
Source: Overseas Property Professional
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