Source: Yahoo! Life —
Laetitia Laurent knows the value of looking far and wide for a good deal. The Florida-based business owner and her husband had been hunting for a second home for five years before snagging an incredible bargain — in Paris.
She made an offer in January on a 415-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment in the coveted Golden Triangle area between the Champs-Élysées and the Seine, and closed in June.
While the U.S. housing market has been slowing down — thanks to elevated home prices and mortgage rates — there’s been a growing trend of wealthy American buyers investing in overseas homes, buoyed by favorable exchange rates and a strong dollar.
“I think we saved probably close to $100,000 between the time we made the offer and the time we closed,” says Laurent, who will use the property as a vacation home and a space to host clients for her interior design firm, Laure Nell Interiors. The euro-dollar exchange rate plunged over 12% last year, falling below parity in August.
Whether you’re a retiree looking to spend your golden years somewhere warm and tropical, or someone investing in a second home for some extra rental income, international properties are currently all the rage.
American buyers are buying properties abroad
The numbers show a clear trend. Coldwell Banker surveyed wealthy American buyers and noted that 67% of respondents own properties outside the U.S. According to Wealth-X figures, the number of high net worth Americans who purchased property abroad in 2022 was also expected to rise by 14% from 2021 and 29% from 2019.
Kelly Cutchin, country manager USA at global payments services provider Moneycorp Americas, says some of these buyers may be looking for an investment property or vacation home, while others could be “jumping the pond” and looking to relocate entirely.
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