Fewer Foreign Buyers Looking in U.S.

Fewer international homebuyers are targeting U.S. markets, and where the foreign investments are coming from is changing.

A new report from Trulia finds that Canada and the United Kingdom still have the most U.S. home shoppers, but the share of Brazilian searchers is rising, up 1.5 percent from July to September 2018. Mexico, South Korea, Japan, and China also had growing shares of buyers seeking U.S. property, growing between 0.5 and 0.3 percent, respectively. Search volume also increased in each of these countries, save Mexico and China, which had decreases of more than one percent.

International house hunters gravitate to large markets like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago – and to markets in sunny Florida, which attract more than a quarter of all searches from abroad. It boasts five slots among the 15 metros most searched by foreigners: Miami, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa and West Palm Beach. The warm weather and beaches of Fort Lauderdale, Tampa and West Palm Beach beckon to snowbirds and retirees from Canada, accounting for 21.9 percent, 19.5 percent and 25.1 percent of all searches from our neighbors to the north, respectively.

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