Don’t be so smug. Most continental Europeans wouldn’t know where to start looking outside of major cities, just as most Americans wouldn’t think to buy in Karlsruhe, Tarragona, or Lodz. And being more conservative than Americans financially, they’re not interested in managing from 3000 miles away.
Foreign buyers are about 7% of the total US market. Continental Europe is maybe 25% of this market. We’re talking about less than 2% of the national market, concentrated in specific, more desirable areas, not uniformly spread.
There are REITs as well, but the kind of property I’m interested in now (houses in working-class parts of NJ and PA burbs) is unlikely to be snapped up by REITards. Or isn’t currently being, anyway.
Looking at local Homepath, sheriff, and auction listings, REOs have doubled or trebled in many areas over the past 12 months.
This being said, I’m getting a NYS sales license and have a broker I can hang it with. So if the flood of hungry Euro-peons does materialize in NYC, I can take some advantage of it as well. Nice thing is that, salespeople are essentially freelance, so this needn’t be a 50-60 hr per week game.
