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Prospective homebuyers hampered by stringent tax laws and the increasing unavailability of precious land at home are becoming enthusiastic about the housing market in America. Who are these people who are helping restore hope in a troubled market on U.S. soil?

            Mr. Peter Oh is a Seattle realtor who is planning on opening a special showroom so he can market twenty-one condo buildings in the Puget Sound area. His business won’t be built in the Seattle area or in the beautiful high rises across the lake in Bellevue. He will open his doors in South Korea – 5,000 miles distant.  He has already sold over twelve homes in The Bravern, a 455-unit luxury tower still in the construction phase in Bellevue and more parties that are interested continue to contact him.  He relates that his competition had sold one-third of a whole building of 334 condo units in Los Angeles called The Residences at Bixel.

            In South Korea, where a piece of land the size of a small lot, has become but a memory, and natives seem to have a penchant for homes in large American cities where condominiums are readily available. South Korea has recently changed the foreign investment laws that enable its citizens to broaden their horizons in America.

            Jason Press, the executive vice president in charge of marketing with a New York marketing company travels not only to South Korea but also to Paris to sell the company’s high-end real estate offerings.  “We recently launched a new office in Dubai, and that’s spurred interest from that region in New York City,” Press says. “We’re associated with luxury international brands, and these are magnets to international buyers.”

            The weak dollar and falling prices are appealing to buyers from overseas. The predicament here at home has also forced realtors to expand their field of buyers. Other countries interested in getting into the U.S. property market come from Mexico, Canada, Britain, India, China, and Dubai.

            Other examples are in Dallas, where a downtown revitalization project that will renew the area and create new arts districts, the developers are building a 120-unit Museum Tower luxury condominium building, are marketing to Mexico’s Monterey and Mexico City’s rich. The units in the tower begin at $1 million dollars. The company is working on a plan to market to Europe’s elite as well.

            Canadians are happily taking advantage of the US exchange rate that gives them more leverage than they’ve seen in many years. While the Canadian dollar was once worth 70 cents in U.S. currency, it is now worth almost $1.01. And real estate companies in Arizona, Hawaii, Washington, and California see the possibilities. Some builders are offering a currency hedge so that Canadians can lock in their purchases at the current exchange rate at the time of the offer.

            Americans will be seeing more and more of the urban real estate going increasingly global as the housing market and the dollar continue to be troubled.