Google Trends Real Estate Interest by Texas Coast Area

Galveston leads US Interest in Real Estate, but South Padre leads International Interest from Mexico and Canada

The Percentage of Canadian buyers doubled from last year, from 11 percent to 23.5 percent - now the biggest foreign buyer market in the US.

Our stats show the surge in interest from Canada on the Texas coast, with the strongest interest in the South Padre Island area.

• 150,000 – 190,000 properties sold to international buyers
• Florida, California Texas. Arizona, New York, Washington, Nevada – most popular locations
• 14% of foreign bought property cost over $750,000
• Average foreign purchase cost $297,000
• 40% of buyers paid in cash
• Canada, UK, Mexico, China, India and Germany most active buyer markets
• Percentage of Canadian buyers doubled from last year, from 11% to 23.5% - now the biggest foreign buyer market in the US.

Two Texas cities were listed among the nation’s top ten “hot-growth” real estate markets in a new report from the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
Houston ranked sixth and Dallas ninth in the Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2009 report.

Two-thirds of baby boomers who make more than $100,000 intend to downsize, according to a report from building industry watcher Hanley Wood.

Boomers are the Americans born between 1946 and 1964 and number 78 million strong -- 28 percent of the population.

Robert Tippets, past-chairman of the 50+ Council for the National Association of Home Builders, says the growing force of silver-haired buyers will influence the building trends and designs of condominiums in the coming years.

"For one thing, units are getting larger to accommodate empty nesters who want extra rooms for offices, computers and guest quarters," he says. In the past, it was hard to get larger units that size outside of luxury condominium projects.

Another survey of baby boomers by active adult developer Del Webb Boomers demonstrates the mobility of boomers as they age: 44 percent want a smaller house once they begin the empty nest season of life.

The same percentage wants a home that requires less maintenance as their top reasons for moving.

• 62 percent rate maintenance as a "paramount issue in choosing a home"
• 36 percent plan on moving more than 3 hours away from their current residence
• 26 percent are planning to purchase a home in an active adult community when they retire.

Great. The growing force of silver-haired buyers will influence the building trends and designs of condominiums in the coming years.

NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun estimates that the level of foreign buyers purchasing U.S. homes might double from the present level of 3 percent of all U.S. home purchases to as much as 6 percent over the next decade.

“American real estate is still relatively cheap for many international buyers,” Yun said. “When newly affluent international consumers think about how to spend their wealth, they know that owning a home in the United States remains a powerful success symbol around the world.”

For example, the economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China account for about one-quarter of the world gross domestic product and are generating about 80 million new middle-class consumers every year. Many of these newly affluent consumers will constitute an important new customer base of buyers for U.S. real estate in the years to come.

International real estate purchases will also be driven by the aging of the baby boomer generation. “As the baby boomers begin to seek retirement homes, the more affluent among them will look to purchase in the American Sunbelt. They will be joined by similar boomers from Europe and other countries, including Russia,” Yun said.

Market Insights From Abroad

Hugo Moguel, a broker in Belize City and president of the Association of Real Estate Brokers of Belize, sees a similar trend in his country.

“Belize is attracting new investors from regions including Europe, Asia and even Russia,” Moguel said. Belize offers good opportunities for foreign investors, especially as the country begins to develop entities similar to real estate investment trusts (REITs), which will attract investors from overseas.

Real estate experts from other countries have also shared their own market insights with NAR. In Canada, the market remains fairly solid, according to Alan Tennant, 2006 president of the Canadian Real Estate Association. Recent appreciation of the Canadian dollar has also helped some Canadian investors who are interested in investing in the U.S.

In the United Kingdom, the situation is quite different, according to Peter Bolton King, chief executive officer of the National Association of Estate Agents. A major financial and banking crisis earlier in 2008, coupled with deterioration of public confidence in the economy and excessive over-marketing of real estate for the last several years have depressed the market there.