Looking for cash buyers for huge housing complexes? Look just across the ocean and you may find more than you were ever expecting. As the US housing market continues to founder, more and more foreign investors are moving out of the stock market and into the housing market[1]. What looks like a catastrophe to many in the US (properties in Miami, for example, selling at 50 percent of what they were worth in 2007), looks like the world’s biggest and best real estate fire sale to foreign investors with strong currency and the cash to buy. And they are buying. According to a Condo Vultures, a consulting and brokerage firm in Miami, “80 percent of the sales in downtown Miami are foreign-based.”
This seems to be a positive on multiple levels. Not only are foreign investors moving in on the market to purchase inventory, but the conventional plan – to rent the properties until the market turns around and then sell – indicates a huge vote of confidence for the U.S. housing market. And right now, the market needs all the confidence it can get.
Do you think the presence of foreign investors in the US market in such high volume is a good thing?
Thank you for reading! Your comments and questions are welcomed below.
[1] http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business/20101005_Foreign_buyers_snag_U_S__housing_units.html
Collier County property appraiser Abe Skinner, who has been working in his appraiser’s office in Naples, Florida since the 1960s, is getting an unusual request this property tax season: people want their property tax assessments reevaluated and boosted[1]. While the evidence is anecdotal since his office does not keep track of the number of people complaining about low assessments, he has definitely noted an increase in people who are hoping to drive their assessments – and with them, their property taxes – up instead of down. In a housing market environment in which one bad local assessment can put an entire neighborhood underwater, people are trying to keep values up any way that they can, speculate Skinner, other local appraisers and even employees of the local county tax office.
The issue with property tax appraisals in particular is a problem in this area of Florida, where the “mass appraisal system” values similar houses in an area identically. Have you encountered this type of problem wherein the owners of properties have possibly artificially inflated the values on their properties basically by paying more in taxes?
Thank you for reading! Your comments and questions are welcomed below.
[1] http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2010/oct/03/collier-lee-market-higher-assemments-short-sales/
In a small town in Kentucky, the local Cultural Arts Association and the MLS service are teaming up to try and attract real estate investors and business-owners considering trying their hand at owning commercial real estate[1]. The Maysville Commercial Real Estate Open House will feature properties that are for sale as well as for rent. The event is designed to attract people who are curious about the downtown area and is open to any property owner with real estate in that area, whether it is retail, rental or traditional office space. The association will provide music and entertainment, and the city will provide refreshments.
Would you attend this type of event to find investing opportunities? Do you think this strategy will be uniquely effective in a small town or could it be applied to larger metro areas?
Thank you for reading! Your comments and questions are welcomed below.
[1] http://www.maysville-online.com/news/local/article_968036d8-cdb2-11df-878d-001cc4c03286.html