Why It’s No Longer Enough to Think Locally in Real Estate

Depending on where you live and work, they have already arrived. You might not see them but they’re there. The international buyer.

There was a time when real estate opportunities were localized. When people moved close to where they grew up and used the same agents their parents did. Agents who lived in the community. Who knew the community-from the inside. Agents whose sole specialty was those few square blocks or miles they farmed.

But during the past decade, much has changed. Fueled by employment opportunities, better ways of life, the Internet and investment opportunities, relocation has dominated real estate activity. Markets shifted as the real estate consumer needs shifted, but only a handful of real estate professionals and companies shifted with them.

According to a recent study conducted by the National Association of Realtors, Canadian buyers made up 11% of all foreign buyers in 2006, a number that has no doubt increased this year. Incredibly, 47% of these Canadian buyers paid cash. Moreover, the Canadian dollar, long the second child of North American currencies, is now worth more than its American counterpart.

Mexico is providing another significant - if counterintuitive - stream of potential buyers. While much is written about Americans buying second homes in Mexico, few articles have noted the increasing number of affluent buyers from below the border looking north to the Valley.

The bottom line is that we live in a global economy. Opportunity is knocking from outside our borders in profound and astute ways. Some are looking at the market and see no yonder. Not to the north, the south, the east or the west.

Others are already there. Cultivating. Building. And thinking globally.

John N. Vatistas is chairman of Scottsdale, Arizona based Equitable Sotheby’s International Realty. To read more click here.

Published Dec. 31, 2007 by RISMEDIA