Undeterred foreign demand in U.S. real estate has saved realtors from the worries of an under-performing real estate market. The U.S. residential real estate market, though amidst recovery, has been plagued with concerns over slowing rates of property-price hikes and flat sales. Residential properties projected a median value of $198,500 in 2014 – marking a 7.9 percent hike in price. The percentage seems rather small when compared to the previous year-over-year hike of 11.8 percent, a year ago. The sales of existing homes fell seven times in a period spanning eight months and the sales of new homes dropped by 14.5 percent in March 2014.
Market watchers, economists and experts predict improvement
Real estate agents across all U.S. markets agree that sales activity has been low for most of 2014. Experts however believe the market is going to pick up soon enough. According to real estate agents, the on-going creation of new jobs and shopping activity that was overdue to the bad winter weather are two key factors that will promote market pick-up.
Further, the realtors say, increasing inventory would fuel the pick-up. Industry leaders hold that if mortgage rates rise only modestly or continue to dip weekly, as they had for close to three weeks in the April of 2014, the market would witness increased activity.
Economists have added another factor to the pool of events that are expected to cause the U.S. housing market to improve – overseas sales. The strong overseas demand that has been largely undeterred by flat sales rates and low median-price hikes will help the market pick-up.
Orlando real estate industry’s overseas investors pumping the market up
Investment in the U.S. markets has been only growing as investors from different countries across the world continue to be charmed by the prospects of the American market. Asian investors have been particularly interested in investments in the American residential real estate market.
For Central Florida real estate alone, Realtors in Orlando were able to list robust investments from the Asians, Britons, Canadians, Germans, and South American investors apart from other smaller but significant contributions from UAE-based and Swiss buyers. A recent industry, in fact, cited a 350-percent increase in the activity of interested buyers from the UAE and Switzerland.
Further, with improving home equity, experts have projected that the backlog of distressed homes would clear significantly. By the end of 2014, distressed homes would form a single-digit market share. The demand is expected to increase further, during the spring home-buying seasons presenting a great opportunity for sellers to put their homes on the market, according to the top listing agents in Orlando. Motivated by overseas investors, indigenous buyers too can make the best of the spring buying season.
