International Buyers Snapping Up U.S. Real Estate

Remember how I kept saying that if you are in any kind of strong financial position, now is the time to snap up investment real estate?

International investors -- from pretty much all over the globe -- are visiting the U.S. and using the impotence of our weakened dollar to pick up solid investments. The Irish have been buying up apartments and townhomes all over Manhattan for more than a year now. This week, USA Today reports that foreign buyers are now coming in and buying single family homes to hold for investment.

I have received calls and emails from at least a half-dozen investors looking for property in Central Ohio and the Midwest, areas generally considered more economically stable than much of the rest of the United States. Unfortunately, my language skills include only a smattering of Spanish. As a native English speaker, my inquiries have come from buyers in Australia, Britain, and from English speakers from France and Spain.

The bottom line is that this is the time to buy. And hold. NO FLIPPING!

Here is an excerpt from the USA Today story:

"With these prices, you can't say no," says Monique Burger of Belgium, who's buying a Miami Beach vacation condo for $270,000. "With the low dollar against the euro, it helps. And the low housing prices made us want to buy."

I'm not surprised. Rents are strong in many areas of the nation, though there has been some softening as many more homes that people cannot sell are being listed for lease, or into rent-to-buy scenarios.

Once things turnaround, investors will have both rents, depreciation and expence deductions and appreciation all putting cash in their pockets -- courtesy of their renters.