Foreign home buyers still love the sunshine

Florida remained the top destination of foreign buyers purchasing U.S. residential real estate in 2017, with 22 percent of all foreign buyers who bought residential property in the United States. Florida Realtors latest report, the 2017 Profile of International Residential Real Estate Activity in Florida, finds that international sales hit $24.2 billion this year, up from $19.4 billion in 2016.

The economic environment created a mix of opportunities and challenges for Florida’s foreign buyers in 2016 and 2017, according to the report’s analysts. Latin American countries faced political and economic difficulties and weaker currencies in the wake of the collapse in oil prices. Meanwhile, economic growth strengthened in Canada and the Canadian dollar stabilized against the U.S. dollar.

House prices rose in the United States, including in Florida, but the appreciation was modest compared to home price appreciation in Canada. Amid these challenges and opportunities, overall foreign buyer purchases of Florida residential property increased: the share of buyers from Canada rose, the share of buyers from Latin America and Europe declined and the share of buyers from Asia and Africa remained unchanged.

The report is based on an annual study done by the National Association of Realtors in cooperation with Florida Realtors. It presents information relating to residential transactions with international clients of Florida’s Realtors as well as information on U.S. clients seeking to purchase property abroad during the 12-month period of August 2016-July 2017. In this report, the year 2017 refers to the 12-month period August 2016–July 2017, and the year 2016 refers to the period August 2015–July 2016. A total of 6,551 Realtors responded to this year’s survey, conducted Aug. 7-Sept. 9.

The survey considers only residential purchases in the state.

Report highlights:

Foreign purchases in the state increased to $24.2 billion, a $4.8 billion increase from 2016’s $19.4 billion.

Foreign transactions accounted for 21 percent of Florida’s residential dollar volume of sales, a 2 percent increase year-to-year. Nationally, foreign buyers comprised 10 percent of the dollar volume of existing sales.

Foreign buyers purchased 61,300 Florida properties (47,000 in 2016), which made up 15 percent of Florida’s residential market (12 percent in 2016). Nationally, foreign buyer residential purchases accounted for five percent of existing-home sales.

The median purchase price paid by foreign buyers increased to $259,400 ($252,500 in 2016), which was in line with the overall increase in Florida prices.

The median price paid by foreign buyers was 18 percent higher than the median price paid by all Florida buyers.