The Surprising U.S. Markets Where Foreigners Are Buying Up Property

8:00 am ET
November 12, 2015

You’ve probably heard that international buyers are snapping up properties in the U.S. But did you know where? In addition to the usual suspects of Miami, New York, and Los Angeles, foreign money is also flowing into the real estate markets of … Watertown, NY, and Anchorage, AK.

Say what?

Based on realtor.com® data, we were able to come up with a list of 20 markets with the most foreign demand. In the process, we discovered some places you wouldn’t normally think of as international hot spots. Or national ones, for that matter.

Watertown, for example, has strong international ties with Canada! This small town is only two hours from Ottawa and 3.5 hours from Toronto, so you can see why it would be a wise investment for Canadians. Across the continent, the same rationale is driving up Canadian demand in Seattle and Bellingham, WA.

Snow-covered Anchorage has a mysterious draw for foreign buyers. Not only the Canadians, but the Germans, the Australians, the British, and even the Koreans are investing there.

Miami’s top spot is no surprise given the strong Latin American influence in its real estate market, but it turns out that the whole state of Florida is buzzing with foreign investors. Orlando, Naples, Cape Coral, Lakeland, and Tampa continue to attract home shoppers from all over the world.

In the balmy South, the border towns of El Centro in California and Texas’ Laredo and Brownsville made the cut thanks to Mexican buyers.

What happened to the Japanese buyers who were all over U.S. real estate in the 1980s? They dropped out when Japan’s economy tanked in the early 1990s. They are returning, but they haven’t gone much farther than Honolulu and the West Coast such as Seattle.

India, the sleeping giant of Asia, also made its presence in the U.S. real estate market—mostly in New York and San Jose, due to their prominence in the technology sector.

Our international demand ranking is composed of three metrics: the number of listing views, international share of overall traffic for that market, and share of international traffic relative to U.S. traffic.

international buyers-01