Florida First for Overseas Property Investors in US

Florida is the first choice for overseas property investors purchasing in the US, with the number of foreign investors rising to a new record high.

The latest National Association of Realtors (NAR) survey of international investment in the US has shown that 22 per cent of all foreign property investments took place in the Sunshine State of Florida.

California and Texas were the next most popular states, responsible for 12 per cent each of property purchases by foreign nationals, meaning that the top three states between them accounted for almost half (46 per cent) of all investments by overseas property investors.

Arizona and New Jersey made up the top five with 4 per cent each of the foreign investor market.

In total, 284,455 properties in the US were purchased by foreign investors, a figure up a huge 32 per cent from the same time in 2016. Overseas buyers accounted for 10 per cent of all existing-home sales in the US, up from 8 per cent the previous year.

According to the NAR survey, residential property purchases by foreign buyers and recent immigrants in the twelve months between April 2016 and March 2017 reached a value of $153 billion. This represented a 49 per cent rise from the $103 billion in the same period ending in 2016, and gretaly supassed the previous survey record of $103.9 billion set in 2015.

The average purchase price paid by overseas property investors rose by 9 per cent to $302,290, up from $277,380 the previous year and above the average price of all existing homes sold in the US of $235,792.

NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun commented: ‘The political and economic uncertainty both here and abroad did not deter foreigners from exponentially ramping up their purchases of U.S. property over the past year.’

He continued: ‘While the strengthening of the US dollar in relation to other currencies and steadfast home-price growth made buying a home more expensive in many areas, foreigners increasingly acted on their beliefs that the US is a safe and secure place to live, work and invest.

It seems the Sunshine State of Florida still seems to place to go when it come to foreign property investment in the US.