International Real Estate on the Rise

Facts and Figures

International Transaction
International real estate transactions as defined by NAR includes selling a home in your local market to an immigrant, leasing a commercial property to a foreign investor, assisting your local clients with the purchase of a (second) home in another country, closing a transnational referral transaction, having a transaction that contains an international client, funds, property, translation, etc.

Percent of Total U.S. International Sales by Country

MLS Area 82
Area 82 is your passport to international properties on the MLS. Currently there are over 200 global properties featured, be sure and input your international listings there too. Don’t forget you can search for a member that speaks a certain language or specializes in a specific culture through the member finder database.

Think Global
HAR.com properties are translated into 6 languages:

Chinese
French
German
Italian
Vietnamese
and Spanish

Volume of International Transactions

International Sales Activity, April 2012 – March 2013

2012; this is second highest since data was collected.
Over 6 percent of total U.S. Existing Home Sales (EHS) in dollars.
Over 4 percent of EHS transactions.
Buyers are upscale average price of $354K vs. U.S. average of $228K.
Florida, California, Texas, and Arizona the leading destinations.
Canada, China, India, Mexico and U.K. provide majority of buyers.

Chinese Buyers

Houston is No. 5 in the top 10 U.S. cities Chinese buyers are most interested in, according to Juwai.com, a website where Chinese buyers look at global real estate listings.
Chinese buyers purchased $8.2 billion worth of U.S. property in 2012, according to Juwai.com. It ranked cities by how many searches they attracted from Chinese house hunters.

HAR Members and Affiliate Groups

HAR International is a service of the Houston Association of REALTORS®. Members pay no additional dues to belong and may attend informational seminars, educational courses. (such as the Certified International Property Specialist designation) and networking events. The HAR International mission is “Helping to increase member awareness, knowledge, and success in international real estate.”