“International buyers are major players in the Florida residential real estate market, accounting for 15 percent of total home sales, according to a new joint study conducted for the Florida Association of Realtors® (FAR) by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). For a long time, anecdotal evidence from Realtors® has suggested that international buyers play a sizable role in Florida home sales, but this study marks the first attempt to quantify the trend….Altogether, the Realtors surveyed closed 1,844 home sale transactions to non-U.S. buyers.
* Florida's international homebuyers came from more than 100 countries in all areas of the world, but Europeans bought the majority of Florida homes -- 58 percent -- with more than half those European buyers from a single country, the United Kingdom.
* The United Kingdom alone accounted for one third of all international home purchases.
* One third of international buyers were from South America, Central America and the Caribbean.
* Over one third -- 36 percent -- of international buyers paid cash for their home compared to only 10 percent of all Florida homebuyers.
* For foreign buyers, an almost equal share purchased their Florida homes to use as a vacation home (38 percent) or as an investment (37 percent). Only 17 percent purchased a home to live in while traveling to the U.S. on business.”
I think most people would be surprised if they knew the number of international real estate transactions that occurred in their own community. Of course, Florida has more than its far share of international buyers simply because of the climate. In Bellingham Washington there is an often heard quote that “taken as a whole, Canadian companies are the largest employer in Whatcom County.” Many of the business people and economic development people are aware of this, but your average citizen has no idea. Most residents in Bellingham go about their day-to-day activity never realizing that several of the stores and businesses they patronized were actually Canadian owned and operated.
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