I always knew that Germans like to travel, explore and live overseas - just like me here in Vancouver. What I didn't know is that according to the National Association of Realtors the largest number of foreign buyers in the US comes from Germany!! Overseas buyers made some $41 billion worth of residential real estate purchases in the United States during 2005. Germans accounted for 13 percent of the total purchases from overseas. Latin Americans are right on their heels and other countries like Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom are not far behind. The majority of purchased homes are vacation properties in resort areas, such as Miami and Ft.Lauderdale in South Florida, Palm Springs, California, and the ski resorts of the Rockies and the Sierras. Check out the full article on CNN Money!
And that's not all: apparently Germans are now also getting into condo-hotels. Due to the stable Euro and current tax regulations more and more German investors are interested in this new type of hotel living which allows them to receive rental income as well. Offerings like this don't yet exist back home. Especially Florida seems to attract the beer drinkers with deep pockets. Get the whole scoop on Germans and their desire for this type of real estate on Condohotelcenter.com.
Mhhh, now some of you might be wondering if you should market to these pork eating, excitement craving, real estate loving Germans...and if you are, please feel free to contact Annika for the latest news, some language tutoring and insights into the German brain...I am more than happy to help!