According to new data released by Florida Realtors, international buyers who are looking to invest in property in Florida are helping to stabilize Florida's property market, which is still being described as 'fragile'. Latest figures show that over the past 12 months realtors within the Florida area have been dealing with more and more international buyers who are looking for a home in the state, and that between July 2011 and June 2012 international buyers accounted for 19% of all residential home sales that took place in the state.
The report states: "A number of investors allegedly find that owning physical assets in the US is a comfortable choice during difficult political or economic times. In general, respondents reported that their clients saw US real estate as less expensive than was the case in their home countries. Foreign buyers typically don't have credit ratings that are computed on scales similar to US practices, don't have Social Security numbers and have credit and asset profiles significantly different from typical US credit profiles."
This means that foreign buyers find it more difficult to obtain a mortgage, but this difficulty does not seem to be deterring them from buying real estate in the state and many seem to be prepared to buy at the high end of the market. The median price is being reported as $194,700, which is significantly higher than the median price for Florida of $125,000.
Canadians represented the largest percentage of international buyers, with some 31% of all international sales being completed by people from north of the border.
