Cheap Dollars & Large Inventories Mean Vero Beach Bargains for Foreign Buyers
With the U.S. dollar at its weakest level in decades, international buyers are chasing housing bargains in Vero Beach, eager to take advantage of their purchasing power and the declining prices in some of the best-known U.S. cities.
The Washington Post reports “The impact of the weak dollar on foreign demand is one of these market forces that has snuck up on us,” said Jonathan J. Miller, chief executive of Miller Samuel, an appraisal company in New York. “It’s been gradually gaining momentum, and the demand has accelerated as the fall in the dollar has accelerated.”
A study last year by the National Association of Realtors confirms that 25 percent of real estate agents surveyed in summer 2007 said they had more business from international clients than they did five years ago. The weak dollar was cited as one of the reasons for the uptick.
About 26 percent of foreign buyers ended up in Florida and another 16 percent in California, with Texas in third place. And more than a quarter of the foreign buyers bought their homes with cash, and when they took out loans, they put down more money than domestic buyers, the study found.
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